


Time to Soar

by WriterBen01



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Everyone Is Gay, Guess there is now, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Is there a tag for Naruto dealing with his childhood and bonding with Team7?, M/M, Murder Mystery, Murder-Suicide, Original Character(s), Suicidal Thoughts, Team as Family, Teen Romance, Weekly Updates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-01-03 22:08:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 64,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21186761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterBen01/pseuds/WriterBen01
Summary: Naruto has had strange dreams all his life of falling to his death. They've only gotten worse as Team 7 is tasked with investigating the disappearance of a Konoha ninja in a small village that is unwelcoming to Konoha. No matter how many obstacles in their way, Naruto is on the case.Takes place in a pre-Shippuden AU where Sakura is already somewhat of a medic, Sasuke has had more time to like his team, and almost everyone is gay.





	1. Clair de lune

**Author's Note:**

> This was my NaNoWriMo project for 2018, but I conceived the basic premise about 15 years ago. I've put a lot of time and heart into creating this, taking another year to edit and polish it up. I'm bad at keeping to a writing schedule, so I wanted to finish it before posting. It's just under 60k words and will be updated weekly.
> 
> Also, trigger warning, there's recurring mentions to suicide and suicidal thoughts. This ties in heavily with the murder mysteries that are at the heart of the story.

Naruto could feel the chill night wind on his skin, straight through his pyjamas. It had been hard to see the town at first, but the clouds had parted and the full moon had cut through. It was heartbreakingly beautiful.

“Don’t...”

Naruto smiled. “All my life, people have been telling me I’m worthless, you know. That they’d rather see me dead. I guess they’re about to get their wish.”

“You can’t do this.”

Naruto stood at the edge of the cliff. He could hear water coming down a waterfall and crashing on the sharpened rocks at the bottom. He wondered what people would think when they found him. Would they even miss him?

“I can’t go on without you.”

Naruto grinned as wide as he could under these circumstances. “Stop being so negative and watch me soar.”

Naruto stepped back and he fell.

~*~

Naruto shot upright, panting. He hated that dream. Was it the full moon already? Training with Team 7 had been keeping him so busy that it had been hard to keep track of time.

He rubbed at his eyes. There was no way he would fall back asleep anytime soon. Not while his hands were still shaking.

He sniffed the air and sighed. He was supposed to be a grown-up ninja. This was not supposed to be happening anymore. He undressed and threw his clothes in a washing machine together with his bed sheets. He kicked the boiler before stepping under the shower. He tried to get himself cleaned up quickly, but the water turned cold before he had even had a chance to soap up. At least the shower had taken care of most of the sweat.

He shivered as he dried himself off. He was definitely awake now. Time to pull out the big guns. He got into a fox onesie for warmth and felt a grumbling inside his stomach. Perfect. No matter how many times he put it on, it still annoyed the Kyuubi when its host wore something cute and fox themed.

He sat himself down at the kitchen table with a book about chakra control. If that would not get him drowsy, nothing could.

He sighed from just looking at the page he had last left it. No pictures at all. Mostly written in Kanji without furigana to help him. He peaked ahead and instantly regretted it. No illustrations until another seven pages. This required tea.

He moved some dirty pots into the sink to make room for a kettle and put the water on. Mostly, it was an excuse to put it off for another few minutes. But once the blond genin was armed with his hot beverage, he gave it a serious attempt.

_Chakra resonance occurs when two ninja, as a special case of the more general chakra wielding organisms, achieve chakra wavelengths that supplement each other’s positive peaks while not seriously negating the elemental negative feedback loop._

Naruto really hated reading. He was only on page ten with another two hundred to go. He tried for another half a page, but it was not working. It was just creating a headache and frustrating the ninja.

He closed the book carefully and put it away. Maybe some fresh air? He replaced his onesie with actual clothes and took to the streets.

That time of night, there were only ninja about. Naruto used to like going out at night and figuring out where they were sneaking about. He would catch a tiny glimpse of an animal mask and feel accomplished for days. He had gotten too good at it though. He noticed the ANBU lurking in the shadows, wearing so much anxiety on their faces that it bled through their masks. The worst was when he heard the little gasp of terror some of them let out whenever they realised Konoha’s demon container was walking around.

Naruto preferred the isolated areas now. There were only a few places that he could go where there were no patrols at all. Some of them were safe for him, others less so. It was not until he arrived at the top of the Hokage monument that he realised he had chosen the most dangerous. There was no waterfall drowning his ears, but it was an eerily familiar landscape stretching in front of him.

He had first discovered this place a few years back. He had been scavenging instant ramen packages from a dumpster. Who would throw out ramen, even if it was a few days past the sell by date? The shopkeeper had accused him of stealing. No matter how he had tried to explain, they had remained furious. He had not understood at the time, but the shopkeeper really preferred the food was incinerated than letting him have it.

Hungry and bruised, he had wanted to get away from where any ninja would find him. He kept moving when a patrol came closer, until he had found this perfectly secluded place.

The village looked peaceful from above, too far away to discern any one person. He could not even make out the particular shop, just the general shopping centre. The few visible lights all blended together. The depressing thought occurred to him that the village was a lot better without him in it. He had had those thoughts before, but a quick glance to the Hokage monument usually grounded him.

He would imagine The First patting his shoulder. “This is just another challenge to overcome. Life can be hard, I know. But you can get anywhere with hard work. Building Konoha was a lot of work too, but I got to be Hokage because of it. If you work hard, you’ll show them all someday.”

He would imagine The Second crouching to his eye level. “These feelings are not useful to you, so don’t listen to them. The village fell apart in grief when my brother passed away and I had to be the rock. Show them you are above emotion.”

He would imagine The Third, smiling to see the little ninja. “Your Jiji is keeping the seat warm for you. Keep going and get here as quick as possible. I want to retire and have time to play with my grandchildren.”

He would imagine the Fourth, smiling down at him with his hands in his pockets. He had never given the Fourth, his personal hero, a voice. He did not need one. He was the embodiment of Naruto’s dreams realised. A young ninja who had taken the seat by showing the whole village he was the strongest.

But on top of the Hokage monument, he could not look at their faces. That made it so much harder to push the depressing thoughts away.

He was eight when a shopkeeper taught him he was worth less than thrown-out ramen cups. He was eight when, for a few moments, he thought about jumping.

The dreams had plagued him on full moon nights ever since.

When he was at his lowest, he was always drawn to coming there. There was something appealing about being out of the Hokage’s view. When he felt like such a failure, he did not want to be seen by them. He knew he would laugh it all off and keep going. But it was nice going a few hours without having to.

Now, he had other people to motivate him. Sakura was a tough nut to crack, but he would like it so much if one of these days he could make her realise she loved him. Kakashi had to be pushes to do anything for them, but Naruto never felt better than when he managed to surprise the jounin. And Sasuke... Naruto would crawl out of the bowels of hell before he let that smug bastard win their rivalry.

When he looked over the edge now, he saw the village he had sworn to protect. The village that might shun him, but that would come to recognise him soon enough. He would force them to recognise him, no matter how long it took.

And he remembered that same shopkeeper. Naruto had gone back and he had glued the garbage can shut. He had soaked the shopkeeper in water balloons, he had dyed the man’s hair a funny colour and he had repeatedly left stink bombs in that shop. Each time, he had been forced to clean up and volunteer time at the shop. The shopkeeper thought he was an annoying kid now. Which was an upgrade from demon spawn. Just a little longer to go before he became a trusted shinobi in the man’s eyes. Things had gotten better.

There was a fresh air blowing against Naruto’s skin. He still had a few hours before sunrise and his walk had not done enough to stop the shaking he felt in his hands. He went to one of the training grounds nearby. He had been working on the Sunshin, a teleportation technique. Except Sakura kept telling him off when he called it teleportation. It was just high-speed movement, fuelled by chakra enhancements. Naruto had the chakra, so it ought to be a piece of cake.

Except, not so much. There was a big barrier to cross from insanely fast to invisibly fast. Activating the technique was supposed to take care of a lot of the work, but Naruto had never been one to flawlessly execute complicated chakra manipulations. That was no excuse not to try, though.

The sun was already rising when he headed back to his apartment. He had made no progress, but it felt like he was right on the cusp of a revelation to make it all make sense. Something about the way he was using his chakra, that could be improved. Or maybe a better distribution of the seals to make it work better together.

There was a note on his apartment door, stuck there with a kunai.

_Mission outside of village. Meet at Western Gate at 8 am._

Sure, Kakashi. Sure. Naruto went into his bedroom to gather his equipment. He had most of it ready, but there were always things scattered about. Toothpaste and brush from the bathroom. Pair of extra clothes from the closet. He had just enough time to hang out his laundry and enjoy a cup of instant ramen before he had to be on his way.

He double-checked he had locked his apartment, before descending the stairs quickly. The streets were still forsaken and he took the moment to wave goodbye at the Hokage monument while nobody was around.

He made his way through the quiet streets, going by the alleys as often as he needed to avoid particularly stubborn villagers. Over the years he had become intimately familiar with the villagers who would tolerate his obnoxious behaviours and those who would become violent.

Sasuke was already waiting there, in an alley right next to the gate. Of course he was. Not like the teme had anything better to do. “Do you know where we’re going?”

“Hm.” Sasuke shook his head, before looking past him into the main road.

Naruto settled against an opposite wall, facing the open gate. Figured. Kakashi hardly ever told them where they were headed. They might be gone for a few hours to gather herbs in the forest, or they might be visiting Gaara in the desert for a few months. Sakura had explained to him that it was a form of training. As a ninja you were supposed to be prepared for anything after all.

“How did Kakashi look like to you?”

Naruto shrugged. “Didn’t see him. He left a note.”

“A note?”

“Yeah. It’s kind of weird. Usually he barges in when I don’t answer the door. He likes reminding us that we can’t ignore him. Why? What did he look like to you?”

“Hm.” Sasuke rapped his fingers against his arm. “He seemed agitated. I think something’s happened.”

“Must be pretty big if it bothered Kakashi.”

“That’s what I’d like to know. Shame you didn’t see him.”

Naruto shrugged. “I was still sleeping.”

“His knocking didn’t wake you up?”

Naruto shrugged.

“Hard to hear any knocking over your loud snoring.” Sasuke grumbled.

“Hey! At least I don’t purr in my sleep.”

Sasuke slipped against the wall and instantly lost his cool stance. Score. “I do not purr.”

“You absolutely do.” Naruto grinned. “Like a tone-deaf cat. I’ve heard you on missions. Only way for you to save that cool act of yours is by auditioning for ANBU and getting a cat mask.”

“You don’t audition for ANBU, dobe.”

“How do you know? Oh my god, did you try getting in? Were you rejected when they saw your whole emo act? You should have told us, Sasuke. We would have helped you get over it and only rubbed it in a little bit.”

“You’d like it to be an audition, wouldn’t you? They would never accept you on your ninja skills, but at least you’d stand a chance with your circus act.”

“Are you calling me a clown? That’s rich, you pale-faced, kunai-juggling bastard?”

“I’d never call you a clown, Naruto.” Sasuke said. “That’d imply you were funny.”

Sakura sighed. “Already at it?”

“Good morning, Sakura-chan!” Naruto beamed. “You know how Sasuke gets. Disturb his beauty sleep and he’s cranky for hours.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “You know, if you’d stop annoying him maybe he’d treat you a little better.”

Sasuke smirked. “I’d like to see the day.”

“Quite right.” Sakura giggled and positioned herself next to her crush against the wall. “And good morning.”

“Good morning.” Sasuke scanned the street, but nobody was nearby. “Did you see Kakashi?”

“Yeah, he told me to come here. Why?”

Sasuke frowned, lost in thought.

Naruto sighed. “Sasuke thinks he looked agitated.”

“If he was, I didn’t notice.” Sakura said. “Though, he did seem to be in a hurry.”

“Kakashi was in a hurry? I can’t even imagine what that’s like.”

“He didn’t act like it.” Sakura said. “I wouldn’t have noticed at all, but he usually bulldozers his way into the kitchen to snag some of my mom’s cooking. Today he was gone the second I had my orders. What do you think it means?”

“Probably nothing that concerns us.” Sasuke said. “But we should keep an eye on it.”

“I’ll pay special attention, Sasuke-kun.”

“Hm.”

Naruto bumped Sakura’s arm and looked at Sasuke. “His face is doing the thing.”

“Ooh, it is.” Sakura smiled, turning her gaze on Sasuke as well. “He’s really thinking about it.”

Sasuke tried his best to ignore them, but the silent staring got to him within minutes. Especially when Naruto started trying to copy it. Sasuke rolled his eyes. “It’s called thinking, dobe, and you should try it sometime.”

“Any ideas?”

“I’m trying to remember his behaviour the last few weeks. Anything he’s said or hinted at. Can’t imagine anything.”

“Maybe one of his dogs died.” Naruto said. “Wait, can Ninken even die?”

“Yeah.” Sakura said. “They’re summons though. They age weirdly.”

“Why?”

“Different plane of existence. Time moves differently.”

“So they age more quickly?”

“Sometimes. I saw a book about it in the ninja library if you’re interested.”

“That’s okay. I’m buried deep in manga. I’m behind on six of my favourite nine series. It’s insane how much I’ve missed out on from just a few missions out of the village.”

“Maybe that’s a sign to give up on some of them?”

“Are you mad?!” Naruto gaped at Sakura. “I would rather die!”

“It was just a suggestion, Naruto.”

“It was blasphemy, that’s what it was!”

Sasuke sighed. “Kakashi’s coming.”

“What? That can’t be.”

But there he was all the same, peaking around a wall at his students. “Good morning! Are you ready to go with me on a lovely stroll through the forest?”

“Where are we going?”

“Ma, half the fun is in figuring that out along the way, isn’t it?”

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke followed their sensei out of the gate and out of town. They left at exactly 8 am.

~*~

They took to the trees, jumping from branch to branch. Sasuke and Kakashi pulled ahead, gracefully moving forward. Naruto would never admit it out loud, but he thought it was impressive how they moved. Kakashi seemed almost lazy as he made contact to a branch and released his chakra to shoot off for the next one. Sasuke still had to concentrate on what he was doing, but there was no wasted movement. None at all.

Naruto was not as practiced. His chakra kept flaring at the wrong moments. His foot would land on a branch and a chakra flare would stop his momentum. He would have to catch his balance before positioning himself for the next jump. Or it would flare just as he jumped, making him overshoot horribly.

Sakura was probably even more proficient than Sasuke, but her lower chakra levels meant she could not always achieve the same distance as her teammates. Where Sasuke could simply follow Kakashi, Sakura had to plan her own path using branches that were closer together.

They had made considerable strides when they stopped for lunch by a small river. Sakura settled down on a rock, pulling out a home-made bento. Sasuke had a lunch box with him as well, though it seemed to be composed with a lot less care. Kakashi had a store-bought bento that he had started on.

Naruto washed his face in the river first, before taking out some ration bars from his backpack.

“No bento?” Sasuke asked.

“Nah, didn’t feel like one.” Naruto said.

“Are you okay?” Sakura asked. “You’re having more trouble than usual keeping up with us in the trees.”

“It’s fine. It’s just hard to hold back when you guys are going so slow.”

“Hm.” Sasuke sighed, but he started eating instead of taking the bait.

Sakura turned to her teacher. “So, where are we headed?”

“Can’t you tell?” Kakashi asked without any further explanation. Which meant he was in one of his moods.

“It appears we’re heading to the Land of Earth.” Sasuke noted.

“Mah, right direction but not quite so far. At this rate, we’ll get there by tomorrow evening.”

Sasuke turned to Sakura, who had to think about it for a bit. “We’re moving by the river. There are no major cities or outposts this way. That just leaves towns. There’s Suttsu with its mines in the mountains if we’re veering more to the North after the bridge. Or Higashikagura if we’re moving south.”

“Neither of those.” Kakashi said.

Sakura had to give it some more thought, before her mouth gaped open. “We’re not going to Shigandan, are we?”

Kakashi just smiled and nodded.

“We won’t be welcome.”

Naruto frowned. “Why wouldn’t we be welcome?”

“They don’t like ninja. It’s the only village in the Land of Fire that doesn’t have a connection with Konoha.”

Sakura sighed. “Any chance we’re just stopping there on the way to our true destination?”

“Nope. We’re staying there for a few days at least. Possibly longer. How would you feel about moving there permanently? I hear the weather’s quite nice.”

“It’s extremely close to Konoha. It has the same weather.”

“Of course. And I’ve always enjoyed Konoha’s weather. Stands to reason I’d love this place’s weather too, no?”

“What’s the mission?” Sasuke asked.

“We’re checking up on someone. The client has a good friend who is visiting this village. They’re worried because they haven’t heard from him.”

“Why doesn’t he just go look himself.”

“On this busy road we call life, who has the time to travel all the way to remote villages?”

“Us, apparently.” Sasuke said. “What do we know about this person?”

“He’s a travelling merchant. Has been staying in the village for a few weeks, trying to get new contacts. It was going well and he was supposed to move on soon.”

Sasuke turned to Sakura. “Why does this village sound familiar?”

Sakura rummaged through her backpack, finally finding a book with maps of the local area. “They’re a big deal in the ninja supervision treaty.”

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. “And that was?”

“When Konoha was founded, we established a monopoly on Shinobi business throughout the land of fire. The minor clans around the country were forced to join Konoha, or else risk war. Whenever chakra-sensitive kids are scouted, they pose a problem. We don’t want rogue ninja running around creating their own rival gangs outside of the Hidden Leaf’s control. So, we make sure the villages they are from either enrol the kid in the Adademy in Konoha, or pay for a supervision detail to keep the child from becoming competition. Either way, Konoha ninja can survey the villages whenever they want.”

“I thought all ninja were born in Konoha.”

“Most them are, especially since all the chakra manipulators keep getting removed from the villages. but there’s at least one each year that is transferred in. Lee was brought in from the sea towns, and there was Haki and Fuhu from our year. They did not make it on a genin team.”

“They didn’t? What happened?”

“The jounin instructor didn’t pass them.” Kakashi said. ”They’re working in mission administration now.”

“Cool. So, this village is famous because we took too many of their people or something?”

“Quite the opposite. Konoha was scouting the village to figure out if they had a ninja force and they did not like that at all. They wanted nothing to do with Konoha and to be left to their own affairs. So they struck a deal. Konoha would stay away until the first chakra sensitive person was found that could be trained as a ninja, checking at most once a year. It was a delay of at most a decade, they thought.”

“How long did it end up taking?”

“There has still not been a single ninja given from that village as of yet.”

“Bad luck, huh?”

“Possibly. It is the only village in the whole country though. Every other village ended up sending someone to the Academy within twenty-five years of Konoha’s founding.”

Kakashi nodded. “There’s a betting pool among the jounin that has amassed a legendary pay-out.”

“But isn’t that strange? How can an entire village be devoid of chakra users?”

“That’s something everyone wants to know.” Sakura said. “It’s not like we can study the village enough to find out. Everyone wants to know. Maybe figuring out why these people can’t use chakra, lets us turn it around to make a higher proportion of the population become ninja.”

“Wait, if ninja aren’t allowed into the village, what are we going to be doing there?”

Kakashi beamed. “We are going to be evaluating the population for chakra manipulation, of course! And, if we happen to find a travelling merchant while we’re there, who could blame us of any wrong-doing?”

“Plenty of people.” Sasuke said. “We’re not qualified to check chakra systems.”

“Ma, it’s not that hard. Sakura, you’ve practiced with it, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, I volunteered at the hospital once or twice when they were understaffed. I don’t have the literature with me though.”

“That should be plenty. It’s mostly for show anyway.”

“Do you have a bet going that there won’t be a ninja found this year?”

“Is this how my students think of me? I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked.”

“That we figured you out.” Sasuke said. “Got it. Sakura, how hard is it to do it right?”

“You form a small connection between their chakra points.” Sakura said, moving over to Sasuke. She placed her hands at the bottom and top of his arm. “And then strength-increasing chakra through. If they have the affinity, their bodies will automatically transform it to be usable in their bodies.” She had to concentrate for a few moments to get it right, but then a wave of heat spread from Sasuke’s arm. “It automatically expels it at the end of the arm.

“That feels… peculiar.”

“Yeah. Naruto, take over your vest so Sasuke can practice.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“It’s easier to learn on someone with bigger chakra stores.”

Naruto sighed, before baring his arm. Sasuke put his hands on him and took a few minutes connecting his chakra points, before pushing his energy through. Naruto felt a jolt through his arm, but nothing seemed to happen. They both looked to Sakura.

“Try it again, with your Sharingan active.”

Sasuke’s eyes spun red before he tried again. He seemed to nod this time, though Naruto did not notice any changes. “I saw it.”

“You’ll start getting visible reactions after a few more hours of practice.” Sakura said. She took over and grasped Naruto’s arm to do it again. This time, a puff of smoke appeared at Naruto’s hand.

“That’s actually pretty cool. Let me try.” Naruto grasped Sasuke’s arm and tried to follow the instructions. He had to make chakra links all the time for his own techniques, but it was different doing it in another body. Just like Sasuke, he needed a few minutes to connect. He was about to send through a steady stream of chakra, when a spike made him stumble.

Sasuke’s hand let out flames. “Fuck.”

Naruto pulled back right away. “You okay?”

Sasuke rubbed at his arm. “Just aches. I’ll be fine.”

Sakura patted Naruto’s shoulder. “It’s probably better if you sit this one out until your chakra control’s improved.”

“I still want to help, though.”

Sasuke nodded. “If the village is this opposed to ninja, there will be a good chance we’ll meet resistance. We need somebody asking around and figuring out where trouble could be coming from.”

Sakura grimaced. “Are you sure that isn’t too delicate for a Naruto task?”

“I can handle it, Sakura-chan.” Naruto beamed at her. “I’ll have them figured out long before they can touch a hair on your beautiful head. Or a hair on the bastard’s ugly mug.”

“At least I don’t have a bleached mop which I try to pass off as hair.”

“I’m surprised you even know what a mop is, rich boy. Wait, is that the stick that’s been stuck up your butt all these years?”

“Everyone knows what a mop is, dobe. Though I suppose the village’s biggest slob would have some trouble figuring it out.”

“Not all of us has the money to have everything cleaned for them.”

Kakashi sighed. “If you’re quite finished, we should get going again.”

Naruto sighed. “He started it.”

Kakashi just glared at him.

“Sorry.”

“Better. Let’s go.”

They went on until the sun started to set and they made camp. Naruto and Sasuke hunted down dinner for them, while Kakashi and Sakura put up tents. Sasuke came back with a rabbit while Naruto took fish from the river. Together with the vegetables Sakura had brought along, they managed a decent stew with fried fish on the side.

“Hey sensei, are you going to teach us any new techniques today?”

Sakura flinched. “Aren’t you exhausted? We were running all day.”

“You know me. I don’t get tired.”

“Well, Naruto, that depends on how far you’ve gotten with the previous technique I showed you.”

Naruto stuck his tongue out. “The shunshin is so boring though. Can’t you show me something awesome, like how to make that water dragon you sometimes use?”

“Your affinity is wind and I don’t know about any wind dragons. Show me how far you’ve gotten with the shunshin.”

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, before making the necessary seals and disappearing from sight. He had the smoke part down really well. So much so that it took his team mates a few seconds before they noticed that he had only moved two feet away, and that he had crashed face first in the ground.

“You’re still not closing your seals completely. You should work on that.”

Sakura sighed. “Honestly, I gave you a book on that weeks ago. You still don’t get it?”

“Well, there was all this manga to read…”

“Of course.” Sakura reached into her backpack. “Well, while Naruto’s training, I’ll be doing some serious reading. I found a fascinating treatise on ninja protocol reform. What are you doing tonight, Sasuke?”

Sasuke rubbed at his legs, before taking out the book of maps Sakura had lent him that afternoon and all of his weaponry. “I’m going to familiarize myself with the landscape and make sure I’m prepared for an attack.”

Sakura nodded. “How about you, sensei?”

Kakashi motioned his head to the Ichi-Ichi paradise he already had open in his hands.

“Of course.”

Naruto hesitated for a few seconds, looking around their fire at all of his team mates with their nose in books. It would be so easy to take out his chakra book and join them. He might even be motivated to keep reading beyond half a page. But he knew himself. There was no way he would last for long and there would be all kinds of awkward questions when he would inevitably have to take a break from reading. Better to avoid it.

Naruto stepped away from the camp and refined his damned ground-eating technique. Maybe he could salvage the shunshin as an emergency dodging technique. It did not seem good for anything else. When he went to bed, he was more frustrated than tired.

~*~

_“Come on! Show me the technique!” Naruto nagged, tugging at his friend’s sleeve. “I wanna see!”_

_“Not so loud. They’ll catch us.”_

_It was dark in their little play nook. Naruto used to be afraid of the dark, but this place had never scared him. He had friends here._

_“Just show me and I won’t have to be loud anymore. I even had extra daikon for lunch to make sure I’m ready.”_

_“Okay, fine, fine.” The boy steadied his breathing. “You have to push the chakra out of your skin, but no further than that. Think about moving it really fast.”_

_A small blue line started forming around the boy’s hand, before it started spinning. It looked dangerous. Which made it all the more enticing. _

_Naruto looked up at Sasuke’s face, now illuminated in a blue hue. The Uchiha was staring at his own hand, concentrating as much as he could. Though of course the boy noticed Naruto looking. He started blushing. “I thought you wanted to see the jutsu?”_

_“I’m looking, aren’t I?”_

_“At me, stupid. Look at my hand if you want to stand a chance trying it yourself.”_

_“Fine.” Naruto tried to better see what was going on. A little chakra was escaping, but most of it clung to the skin. Tiny spikes gave it a serrated edge. It really looked quite dangerous._

_He held out his own hand to try. Pushing chakra out was easy. It was one of the things he had known how to do ever since he was a kid. Keeping it close to the skin was harder. It kept wanting to escape and his control had never been the best._

_“Breathe. You can do it if you concentrate.”_

_Naruto closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply and then he exhaled deeply. It was his own chakra. And it would obey if he told it to. Stay closer. He felt it even before he opened his eyes to see it. The chakra manifested around his hand perfectly._

_Sasuke smiled. “You did it.”_

_“It’s not moving though.”_

_“Who cares? It took me weeks to get this far. You should probably get a feeling for this first, before you continue.”_

_Naruto was not satisfied though. He grinned. “Just watch me soar.”_

_Movement. Movement would make his chakra solidify and become useful. He willed the blue line to move. And it did, even if it was for just a second, before almost exploding apart. Naruto fell backwards, trying to wave the burning feeling away from his hand._

_“Are you okay?” Sasuke had lost his concentration too. He was grasping around in the dark to make sure the other boy was not hurt._

_“I’m fine.” Naruto said._

_“I’ll turn on a light. We should be heading back anyway.”_

_“Not yet.” Naruto said. He fumbled around for Sasuke’s shirt, until he had a grip on it. He pulled the boy on top of him. “I haven’t thanked you yet.”_

_“Wh-what?” Sasuke was obscured, but Naruto knew when his boyfriend was blushing._

_The blond ninja pulled Sasuke’s lips against his own. Kissing his warm salty lips always made him happy. Sasuke was trying to stammer in protest._

_Naruto shushed him. “You were the one who told me we should be quiet.”_

_Sasuke swallowed. He nodded slowly, giving into temptation. Their tongues met, timidly at first but soon hungry and insatiable. Sasuke’s hands moved through Naruto’s hair while Naruto’s hands moved under Sasuke’s shirt. The ninja’s skin was like fire and each time Naruto touched him it fuelled the flames. Sasuke whimpered and looked at Naruto with hunger in his eyes, yearning for more._

_Naruto was happy to oblige._

_He caressed Sasuke’s chest, his shoulders, his back. And he moved lower. The boy always wore his pants so low, it was easy to slip his hand under the waistband and let it rest on the other ninja’s ass. He squeezed and Sasuke let escape a moan through their kissing._

_“Don’t stop…” Sasuke said. “I want you to…”_

~*~

Naruto woke up in uncomfortably tight pants. Sasuke had been sleeping in his own bag beside him in the tent, but it was hard to look at him after a dream like that. He gathered some of his clothes and snuck outside.

“Bad dreams?” Kakashi whispered.

“Just hard to sleep on such a hard surface.” Naruto said. “I can take over the look-out.”

Kakashi glanced down. Then he grinned. “Sure. It was just the surface that was hard. Nothing else.” The old man wiggled his eyebrows. “If you need some privacy, my adorable little student, you can just ask for it.”

Naruto blushed crimson. “You pervert. Just go to sleep already.”

Kakashi smiled, before slipping into his own tent. “Just remember. It didn’t happen if nobody heard you doing it.”

“That’s lousy reasoning.”

“Did you hear me two hours ago?”

Naruto almost barfed up his dinner at the mental image that produced.

“That’s because it didn’t happen.” Kakashi tilted his head with his annoying smile plastered on his face. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Naruto could strangle his sensei sometimes. Actually, there were only a few rare moments where he did not want to bring Kakashi to a very gruesome death. Something horrible and ironic like getting trampled to death by a stampeding hoard of naked women that are all late getting somewhere.

Oh god. There was a chance he would actually get off on that.

At least it had gotten his mind off Sasuke, even if it was for just a moment. He did not understand how that bastard had made it into one of his dreams. One of _those_ dreams. He had not had many of them. Usually it was with some random cute guy he had seen passing the streets. If it was anyone he recognized at all. Usually they just cuddled with him or gave him an innocent little kiss.

This had gone a lot further than what he was used to. And it had been vivid too. Almost as vivid as… as the waterfall dream.

But that was impossible. That was always the same dream and it only happened on the full moon. It was just a coincidence that it had felt so similar.

Naruto distracted himself by checking on the traps surrounding their little camp site. Kakashi was a professional jounin and he had never made a mistake in protecting their tents. But Naruto was the prank master and it was a matter of principle that he would inspect them. He even had a few contributions. A particular trap was hidden inside a tree trunk, under a cover of leaves stuck together with glue. Not easy to notice, but not impossible either. Naruto remade it using tree sap as an adhesive instead. Not even ANBU would notice after he was done.

He went back to the fire when he was done. He stared at his hand. In his dream, he had been so confident in his ability to make his chakra behave. He still remembered what it felt like to do it wrongly and how it felt when he did it right. He just pushed out a little bit and then…

Blue chakra formed around his hand. It felt similar to the Rasengan, where he pushed his chakra into a ball and spun it around quickly enough to make it dangerous. This was just regular chakra. Thicker than in his dreams, but still stable. He touched it with his other hand and it was cool even in the evening air.

It was beautiful to look at. He could even see his chakra flares, brightening the glow without disturbing it. He could really do some extra damage if he could make the chakra solid. What did he have to do again? Just think about making it move? It wobbled and trembled.

A chakra flare made the blue glow grow beyond control. It pushed Naruto onto his back on the ground. He grunted and rubbed at his head. That was a familiar feeling too.

“Are you okay, dobe?” Sasuke was coming out of his tent, only half-dressed. “You didn’t come back to bed.”

“I took over surveillance from Kakashi.” Naruto said.

“And something attacked you?”

“It was nothing.” Naruto tried to get back up.

Sasuke walked over and grabbed his hand to help him.

“I’m fine.” Naruto said, pulling his hand back.

Sasuke had not been counting on that reaction and lost his balance, falling on top of Naruto. Naruto tried to catch him, ending up with his hands on Sasuke’s naked skin. They struggled to get separated again.

“Stop moving.”

Naruto waited impatiently, no matter how awkward, as Sasuke put himself upright again.

“Don’t be such a baby. I was just trying to help you up.”

“I can do it myself, teme.” Naruto sat himself back at the campfire.

“I’m going to try to get some more rest. If you could try not to let ‘nothing’ attack you again – managing to beat you, I might add – that would be excellent.”

“Bastard.”

Naruto hated the Uchiha’s guts more than words could describe. But strangely, there was another thought that was dominating his mind.

Sasuke’s skin did feel like fire.


	2. Luna Tu

The night seemed to pass as any other. Naruto’s mind was on the dream and his encounter with Sasuke. But as a trained ninja he did not let it affect his ability to stand guard and pay attention around him.

And then it all happened at once out of nowhere. A trap was triggered on his right and Naruto shot to attention instantly. He saw nothing in the forest. There was no indication of human or beast fleeing.

A man was suddenly approaching behind him, right from his blind spot, trying to push a knife through Naruto’s chest.

He jumped away just in time. “We’re under attack!” He yelled, grabbing a kunai from his holster.

But the man that had appeared out of the blue was now almost out of sight, clutching the bag that had been sitting next to Naruto. Damn it. That bag contained last month’s wages.

Kakashi took only a second to emerge from his tent, holding a kunai.

“They robbed us.” Naruto said, pointing in the direction the bandit had gone.

“I’ll make him sorry.” Kakashi promised, giving chase. They might have surprised them, but it was nothing a jounin could not handle. “But next time, don’t fall asleep on your watch.”

Sasuke and Sakura took only a few more seconds to join Naruto.

The adrenaline was coursing through his veins and he had to focus on getting his breathing back under control.

Kakashi was still moving. He should have caught the bandit by now, but for some reason he kept stumbling along his path. Naruto could hear traps going off in the distance. The bandit had prepared well. Realisation crept in that more was going on. How had he set off that first trap to distract him? Unless…

“It was a diversion.” Naruto said.

Smoke exploded around him. His whole team was coughing. He could feel drugs entering his blood stream by how much the Kyuubi was struggling against it. His eyes stung and it was hard to make out any shapes around him.

He was hunched over the ground, while unknown figures moved around him.

“The kid’s not going to sleep.”

“That’s impossible.”

Naruto pulled up his chakra. The pain was keeping him from completing any technique. The Rasengan was not an option if he could not first make any clones to help him. He was lucky he had just learned a way to manipulate his chakra without the help. His hand glowed blue and then he made it slowly move and wobble around. It took just a few seconds for his chakra to flair and make everything explode.

The smoke moved away from him and finally his senses started to clear. He was breathing normal air again and he could see. There were two bandits near him. They were wearing smoke masks and they looked straight at him.

They shared a single glance, before one of them dove to Sasuke’s prone form and held up his head. The bandit took out a kunai.

“Stop it!” Naruto yelled, before another coughing fit overtook him. He willed his body to get over it and stood up proper. His hands were still shaking, but at least he was in a better position to sprint if it was needed.

The knife was pressed tightly against Sasuke’s neck. Sasuke could hardly breathe without the bandit pressing it closer. A small trail of red ran down Sasuke’s skin and started to stain his shirt, blue fabric turning black under the night sky.

There was too much space between them.

Of course, there was one thing that could get his fist in the man’s face before he even had a chance to realise Naruto had moved. The Shunshin had not worked before, but maybe it would this time. It was risky and there was only a small chance it would save them.

A small chance was not enough.

The Kyuubi’s chakra was rising in him. That was the last thing he needed; feeling more bloodlust and less calm. The chakra itself was an asset, but it was too volatile to be much of one. He could use it to overpower flashy summoning techniques or to create clones. Nothing so precise as a shunshin.

_Get down. Let me concentrate!_

Kakashi was too far away. If he had not heard the earlier chakra explosion, there was nothing he could do now with the bandit’s bloodlusty eyes focused on him. Sakura was closer, but she was unconscious. No doubt her medic-trained body was fighting the drugs, but she needed a jolt to wake up. There was nobody coming to help him and nothing he could do to help without risking Sasuke.

“What do you want?” Naruto asked.

“Stay still and quiet.” The bandit said, punctuating his threat by pressing further into Sasuke’s neck.

Naruto hissed as he saw more blood escaping. The knife was close to the jugular vein and with the bandit’s behaviour it was only a matter of time before it got damaged. Naruto could not attack them. He could not talk to them. His options were dwindling.

As the seconds ticked away, Naruto could see the other bandit hurriedly going through their stuff. He pocketed money and anything looking more expensive.

When he moved out and gave the okay, the one holding Sasuke slit the Uchiha’s neck. Blood sprayed out of the wound.

“Sasuke!”

He had sliced straight through the artery. Naruto rushed to his teammate while the two bandits ran away. He pressed his hands hard against Sasuke’s neck. Sakura had drilled them often enough what to do in crisis situations like these. He started kicking at Sakura’s body, trying to wake her.

She grumbled, but did not respond. Naruto kept at it, stretched across the ground as he tried to keep Sasuke from losing any more blood while also jostling the only person present who could heal him. It seemed to take forever, but eventually Sakura opened her eyes.

“Wh-what?”

“Bleeding asshole over here.”

Sakura looked offended for just a moment, before she rushed in and took over the pressure.

“You got this?”

“Of course.” Her palms glowed green and she got to work.

Naruto ran in the direction the bandits had gone, his hands still covered in blood. He found no trace of them. Not one broken twig. Not one trail of blood. Surely some of Sasuke’s blood had gotten on them? There was not even a scent trail that he could pick up. The assholes were too practiced at this. Whoever they were, they had done this before.

Frustrated, Naruto conjured a dozen clones and sent them out in different directions. Maybe they would find something.

At the camp, Sasuke was looking a lot better. Still terrible. He was pale and moving slowly. There was a bandage around his neck and he had already changed into a new shirt.

“They just got some money. We’re fine.” Sakura said, coming out of her tent. “They didn’t get any I slept with.”

Sasuke checked his pouch. “Mine either.”

“What the hell was that stuff?” Naruto asked.

Sakura picked up one of the canisters they had used. “Anaesthetic. Quick-acting and very potent.”

Kakashi appeared in front of them again, holding Naruto’s bag. He took just a second to take in the scene, before sighing. “I was worried of this when the guy dropped it to make me back off. Are you guys okay?”

“We’ll live.” Sasuke said. “What took you so long?”

“They had thoroughly trapped the escape route. This was clearly planned. I was gaining on him, but he was faster than any bandit I have encountered before. Better at stealth too.” He turned an apologetic look at Naruto. “You didn’t fall asleep, did you?”

“I was awake. But I didn’t sense anything until one of the traps activated.”

“They’ve had some ninja training. Must be how they got past our own traps too.”

“I have some clones looking for clues, but I don’t know how much good it’ll do.”

Kakashi nodded. “I sent the dogs after mine. We’ve had as much rest as we’re going to have. Take a moment to let the adrenaline drop. We’ll eat our breakfast and then we’ll start moving.”

Kakashi’s dogs came back a little later, shaking their head. The scent trail had been weak from the start, but when they got to a nearby river they had lost it completely.

Naruto sat down away from his teammates. He would get cleaned up soon. This was just another day for them. Almost dying and getting so angry that they could kill someone in retaliation. He knew it was over now, but part of him wanted to grab onto Sasuke and not let go until his continued existence was as firmly reaffirmed in his heart as it was in his head.

“Thank you, Sakura.” Sasuke said. “I would have died without you.”

Sakura put her hand on his shoulder, smiling at him. They seemed to take a lot of comfort out of each other’s company.

Naruto sat silently, trying not to cry as he stared at his hands covered with Sasuke’s blood. 

~*~

They arrived at Shigandan an hour before dusk. It was an isolated town with forests and mountains surrounding it. Large farmlands could be seen further to the west, connected to the town. Where the village was not surrounded by natural stone, it had been enclosed by a thick stone wall. Numerous guards patrolled it.

As they approached the wall, the nearby guards drew their bows and aimed it at them. The looks on their faces were hostile, as if they were actually hoping Team 7 would attempt to jump the wall. Kakashi held up his hands placatingly and asked which way they had to go. The archers hesitated, but then indicated their heads left and Kakashi happily followed their direction.

Naruto found it weird walking along the wall. He did not know of many villages that had walls at all, aside from Konoha. And there none that would act so hostile to a visiting ninja. Each few steps, there was a new archer drawing their bow. It was unnerving. But Kakashi did not let it bother him, so Naruto would not let the worry show on his face either.

When they finally got to the gate, it was closed. Through the portcullis were a few dozen guards, their weapons drawn and trained on Team 7.

“Ninja are not allowed here.” The guard in front said. His spear looked like it had just been sharpened and like it could easily be thrusted through the gate’s metal squares.

Kakashi just waved at them. “We’re looking to enter for the yearly check-up.”

The guards looked at each other, not sure what to do. They finally sighed and lowered their weapons. There was a lot of whispering between them, before one of them went to get an older man from somewhere. His more sophisticated uniform clearly showed him as higher in command. “The ninja investigation? You must be joking.”

“I assure you, we are not.” Kakashi said, pushing a scroll through one of the gate’s slots. One of the younger soldiers had to dive in to catch it. He handed it to the older man.

The commanding officer read it with an increasingly solemn frown. “We are supposed to be informed of it in advance.”

“Didn’t you receive the message? It was supposed to be sent weeks ago.”

“We did not receive any missive of that nature.”

“Ah, it might be the new cleric’s fault. He had to take over from a real pro, after she took maternity leave. It’s been really hard to get our communications properly labelled. I’m sure it was sent out, but it may have been sent with the wrong scroll type. I’m sure it’s somewhere in the communications you get from Konoha.”

“Konoha sends dozens upon dozens of communications every single day.”

“Right, and I’m sure it’s somewhere between that. Not that it matters too much, now that I think about it. It’s only curtesy that we inform you in advance, not law.”

The man gritted his teeth. “I’ll have to get the mayor to approve on this. We have nothing prepared.”

“Mah, that might be good for a change. Put all those nasty rumours to rest.”

“What rumours?”

“Why, that you might be fixing the process somehow. Not that I’ve ever believed them, of course.”

“We do no such thing. We are nothing but faithful to our commitments and responsibilities. No matter how badly Konoha deigns to treat us.”

“Well, I don’t think anyone higher up in Konoha ever paid them any mind, but it would be nice to reassure the common folk.”

“What do we care about the plebians in a village we have nothing to do with?”

“Oh, nothing, I’m sure.” Kakashi smiled. He casually placed a single finger on the bottom of the city’s gate and lifted it up high enough for his team to get inside. The guards tensed, having completely lost control of the situation. Kakashi let it drop with a satisfying clang and moved past the guard leisurely. “We’d really like to rest our feet. While you’re busy getting all the right people involved, we’d love to have a place to spend the night. Any place you can recommend?”

“The mayor’s office has special rooming for visiting dignitaries…”

“Oh, you don’t have to go through the trouble of all that. Just any old inn would suffice.”

“We don’t get many guests.” The man said.

One of the other officers looked uncomfortable. So Kakashi levelled a stare at him. “You sure there’s nothing?”

“J-just the Old Horse Inn near the town center.”

“Sounds perfectly quaint. We’ll take it.”

He gritted his teeth. “Though the mayor would be perfectly willing to entertain our esteemed guests in whatever way they wish, you must think of our civilians. What will they think with ninja walking around so suddenly? I must insist you let me escort you to the mayor’s office.”

Kakashi shrugged. “Ah, but what would we care about plebians in a village we have nothing to do with?”

It sounded like the guard had ground his teeth dull.

“This is a bit of a vacation for us and we are fully intending to enjoy it. If you need us, you know where to find us.” Kakashi gave the guard a small salute, before walking off.

“Wait, there are rules.”

“I know, I know. Keep our headband protectors on at all times, announce our presence and let everyone know where we’ll be. Not my first time here. You already know where we’re going and we promise not to take any detours.”

The genin followed their sensei as he made his way to the inn.

Naruto was impressed with the village. It was almost the size of Konoha, though none of the buildings were as high as his flat. Most of it was made from wood, with intricate decorations carved into railings and support beams. And then there were the roads. Even so close to sunset, the streets were alive with activity. People seemed friendly towards each other, smiling and greeting each other as Naruto and his teammates passed by. These people clearly had a routine they were comfortable with.

But Team 7 was not part of that routine. Most of them smiled when they noticed strangers walking past the street, only to give blank stares once they noticed the Konoha head bands. Vendors stopped what they were doing to take a step back from them, avoiding making eye contact.

It made for a generally uneventful, though somewhat harrowing, introduction to the town.

They were about halfway to their destination, when a small family passed them by. The three children were young, only about eight years old. They brightened when they noticed Team 7 and immediately ran off from their mother.

“Are you really ninja?” The most enthusiastic one asked.

“They have to be.” The girl said. “They have hitai-ate.”

The third child hid behind his brother. He seemed as eager as his siblings, though a lot more comfortable with a bit more distance.

“We sure are.” Naruto said. “Visiting from Konoha.”

“What kind of ninja are you?” The boy asked.

“Do you have any weapons with you?” The girl wanted to know.

“Have you killed anyone?” The shy one asked.

The mother gasped. “Ryo, you can’t just ask stuff like that.”

“It’s fine ma’am.” Kakashi said. He turned to the little ball of energy. “I’m a jounin instructor and these are my genin students. That means they graduated from the ninja Academy and that I’m their boss. They’re basically my little ninja minions, who have to listen to whatever I tell them to do.”

“And we do have some weapons.” Sakura said. She pulled out a kunai from her pouch. “A ninja never goes anywhere unprepared to protect innocent people or fight for the ones she loves. As to whether we’ve ever killed anyone…”

“Yes.” Kakashi said. “But it’s only a last resort. Everyone has family and friends and people that care about them. Ending a life is a serious thing that should not be taken lightly.”

They were absolutely enthralled by the ninja in front of them, looking with wide eyes and eager to ask more questions. Their mother seemed less eager to let them. “We should be heading along.”

The girl would have nothing of it. “You must be here to check for chakra sensitivity. We were too young last time, but we’re hoping to be the first.”

“Sara!” The girl’s mother seemed appalled. “Don’t say such things in public.”

“I just want to ask if there’s anything else we can do.” The girl said.

“Yeah, totally!” The boy nodded eagerly. “We’ve been eating all our daikon. The older kids said that it would help with chakra production.”

Sakura smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that particular theory before, but I’m afraid that’s just a myth. We don’t know exactly what affects the strength of ninja powers, but we’re pretty sure it’s decided at birth whether you can manipulate chakra at all.”

“There’s nothing we can do?”

“Train your body. Eat balanced meals and get enough exercise. Train your mind by paying attention at school and listen when your parents tell you stories. Chakra is formed by combining the yin of the mind with the yang of the body. Certainly can’t hurt to have both at your best.”

“Thanks miss!”

“Yeah, totally. We’ll listen to that.”

“And who knows? Maybe you’ll get to come back to Konoha with us and become ninja.”

“I’ll be the bestest ninja!” The little boy said. “Just watch me soar!”

Naruto froze. “What?”

“I’ll be the best!”

“That’s quite enough.” Their mother said. “You go on ahead. Your father is waiting inside.”

“Okay, mom. Bye Konoha shinobi!” The kids waved and moved along.

Their mother looked pale as she turned back to them. She pointed her finger Sakura and spoke in an angry whisper. “Do not talk to my children again like that.”

Sakura startled. “I’m sorry?”

“Filling their heads with these crazy stories of adventure. You will not take them away from me. I know what you do to the kids you take. You mess with their heads and make them fight in your wars. And then you send me back their ashes. I will not have it.”

“I guarantee you ma’am, that we have no ill will towards any of your children.”

“Just because we’re remote, does not mean we do not hear the stories. How many ninja died in the last great war you dragged this country into?”

Sakura did not know what to say.

Kakashi tensed. “Hundreds of ninja. Many were my colleagues and many were my friends. Each one of them believed in Konoha and...”

“How many of them were kids?” She asked. “Too young to even understand what they were fighting for?”

That shut Kakashi up too.

“They say to never trust a ninja. I’m not going to start now. Stay away if you know what’s good for you.”

The woman went into the house to be with her children.

Sakura was still shaking. “Did we do something wrong?”

Naruto stuck out his tongue at the house. Nothing that the woman would see, unfortunately. “She’s just a mean old lady.”

“You did fine, Sakura.” Kakashi said. He put his hand on her shoulder. “She’s just scared of losing her children. As isolated as they are from Konoha at the moment, it’s not surprising she would feel like we’d be permanently separating them from her.”

“I don’t understand.” Naruto said. “Who wouldn’t want to have a ninja as a child?”

“A protective mother, dobe.” Sasuke said. “One who doesn’t mind a mediocre child, as long as he remains safe.”

“That’s silly.” Naruto just could not imagine anyone reacting that way. “They’re clearly ambitious. I don’t think she can ever stop them from being extraordinary.”

Sasuke shrugged. “Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. It’s not always enough to try hard. Hard work can’t beat real talent.”

Naruto hated it when Sasuke insulted him like that, where the only way to properly engage was to first agree with him. He started moving instead. He would not give the bastard the satisfaction. “Whatever. I’m hungry. Let’s get to the inn already.”

The building seemed like the ones around it. There was just a small sign signifying its business. Kakashi was the first to step into the entrance hall.

“Yo.” He said. “We would like a room please.”

“That’s no problem.” The woman behind the bar said. But she startled when she took a good look at them. “What’s going on? Ninja don’t stay in this town.”

“Well, they do now.” Kakashi smiled. “Easier to do our examinations if we’re staying here, you understand. Is it going to be a problem?”

“No… no, it’s fine. How many rooms?”

“Three is fine, adjacent to each other, including the room furthest away from the entrance. If those are available?”

“Yeah. We actually don’t have any other guests at the moment. Though are you sure it must be the corner room? There is a good view to the mountains and the nearby waterfall from the closer suites which, as I said, are all available.”

“No, this will be fine.”

She nodded and showed them around the Ryokan. There was a hot spring bath for the ninja to use, as well as an inner garden separating the different rooms. It was hard for Naruto to focus on the particulars. He had seen the view the woman had mentioned. The mountains were indeed beautiful. Seeing the waterfall left a foul taste in his mouth.

_He looked down at the ragged rocks that would greet him after his fall. He wondered what the people would think when they saw his dead body._

As soon as they had dropped off their stuff, they got cleaned up and changed into the yakuta that the inn provided them. They had their dinner at the bar in the entry hall.

The hostess had created an impressive spread.

“Did you make all this by yourself?”

“My husband helped. We run this inn together, but he spends a lot of time on his second job at the theater.”

“That must be hard.”

“He says he enjoys it, but I know it’s wearing on him. Would you like some tea?”

“Yes please.”

“It’ll take a few minutes. Please go ahead and eat.”

“We’ll enjoy it while it’s warm then. Itadakimasu!”

They looked at Kakashi for permission and then dug in. It was delicious, as hard as it was to admit for Naruto for a non-ramen food. Exactly what they had needed after two days of travel and the rough morning they had had. The woman introduced herself as Chiharu and they made pleasantries as she served them their drinks.

“Have you been running this place for long?” Kakashi asked.

“I inherited it from my parents, as they did from their parents before them. I grew up changing bed sheets and welcoming guests. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“It’s a lovely place. Do you get a lot of travellers?”

“No, sadly. We don’t get a lot of visitors in these parts. It used to be better a few years ago, but the bandits have become more active. Not as many people risk the road here anymore.”

“Bandits?” Kakashi sounded politely curious. “Is that a recent problem?”

“A consequence of the previous ninja war, I’m afraid. A lot of orphaned children with destroyed towns and no way to make a living.”

“It’s terrible what happened. We did our best to get the Land of Fire’s citizens back on their feet.”

“I didn’t mean to accuse you of falling short. I know some of my neighbours blame the ninja for the war, but I still believe it’s more peaceful now than it was before. We are lucky with all the protections Konoha provides for us. Fire Country’s bandits are bad enough. I would hate to think how bad it would be if foreign bandits came here as well.”

“We would help you more if it wasn’t for the treaty. Forgive me if it’s rude, but may I ask how Konoha accepted such a deal with this village in the first place? Konoha’s records do not include many details.”

Chiharu smiled. “Of course. It was a long time ago, but we’re still told stories. Konoha was gathering all the ninja clans and we did not have a strong ninja population. Those who could manipulate chakra, were already too old to be trained as warriors. They mostly worked as carpenters, using chakra to more easily cut down trees and handle the wood. We were not fighters. Not to the scale of the ninja clans. But we certainly had a voice. A culture. Our princess used that to our strength.”

“Your princess?”

“Ah, a term of endearment rather than anything official. Watanabe Kemeko, the leader of our theaters at the time. She put up a play with our plight as its main message. It must have persuaded the visiting Konoha ninja.”

Sakura gave Kakashi a questioning look. “That must be what happened.”

“I realise it sounds a little farfetched. You should catch a show if you have the time. And if you’re allowed. There is nothing quite like a Watanabe production.”

“We’ll keep that in mind. We ran into a woman and her three kids on our way here. The kids seemed pretty eager to become ninja, but the mom wasn’t as happy with the prospect.”

“Ah, you’ll come across the sentiment more often. What did she look like?”

“Long black hair, the kids too. Her kids were Sara and Iko, didn’t catch the third kid’s name.”

“Ah, Himiko, of one of the Koboyashi family branches. I haven’t spoken to them, but I’ve heard of them. They’ve always had a complicated relationship with ninja. The kids dream of adventure. As descendants of the Shigandan chakra wielders, they feel like they should be the ones to carry on the mantle if anyone. Many of the parents have become jaded. Bandits surrounding the town have made carpentry a risky business. Many have lost immediate family to the outlaws.”

“Why not take care of them?”

“We’ve been trying. I’ve heard they’re not so tough once they’re forced into a fight, but the latter part of that is the problem. Most of them are trained in quick strike and evade tactics. As refugees of the shinobi wars, they had to evade ninja; our guards don’t stand a chance. And calling on Konoha is out of the question. It’s against the rules.”

Naruto grinned wickedly. “But if we were to ‘accidentally’ run into some of them on our way back, nobody could blame us.”

“Please don’t.” Chiharu said. “I’m sorry if I was unclear. I’m not looking for an excuse to get out of the village’s rules. The bandits are a problem, but they’re our problem. I believe in the autonomy and the rules this village was built on.”

“But I’m sure if it’s just a little…”

“What my idiot teammate meant,” Sakura said, “is that he’s sorry. Didn’t you, Naruto?”

“Uh… yeah.”

She nodded politely, before gathering up the empty plates. “I hope you’ve enjoyed your meals.”

“It was excellent, thank you. Before we retire, I do have a question. When we’re testing everyone, it’s good to start with any travellers in town. Make sure we don’t miss them. I’ve heard someone was visiting, some kind of merchant, but he doesn’t seem to be staying with you.”

“Oh, you mean Tori. He won’t be a problem for your survey.”

“You mean he left?”

“No, not really.”

“We do need to check everyone. Is there anyone we could ask whether he’s still in town?”

“That’s not the problem.” Chiharu sighed. “The man died two days ago.”

Kakashi tensed. “Did the bandits get him?”

“No, he killed himself. I wish I could say I was surprised, but there was something off about him from the first moment I saw him. And this is a pretty unusual town. There are walls surrounding us and more danger lying beyond. You need to be made of pretty strong stuff to stay here without it affecting you. My mother used to say that was the source of our Shigandan strength. Survival of the fittest.”

“Ah.” Kakashi said, displaying no further emotions. “Then you’re right. We won’t have to bother with him. We should be heading to bed. Thanks for the food and the company.”

“My pleasure. Pleasant dreams.”

Kakashi led the way to their rooms. He motioned for them to gather in the corner room, signalling them to be quiet. He summoned his dogs.

“Pakkun. Take perimeter, make sure we aren’t eavesdropped on.”

The dog nodded and then disappeared from sight together with his pack mates.

Kakashi took several more paranoid looks around him, before he finally seemed ready. “As of now, we treat this village as enemy territory.”

“What is going on, sensei?” Sakura asked.

“The situation has suddenly gotten a lot more dangerous than we had thought. I wasn’t planning on telling you for the sake of plausible deniability, but that’s no longer responsible.” He sighed. “This was supposed to be a safe mission.”

“Is this about the dead traveller? That Tori?”

“Yes. I told you we were hired by a client to check up on him and that was a lie. We were sent by the Hokage. I told you he was a merchant and that was a lie as well. Akira was actually a Konoha ninja on an undercover mission.”

There was an uncomfortable feeling bubbling in Naruto’s gut.

“If Akira is dead, then he was murdered. And whoever killed him, wouldn’t want us looking into his death.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update on Thursday November 7th.


	3. Blue moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Team 7 talks about their feelings, learn more about the ninja that was visiting the village, and Naruto has more dreams

Sakura pushed her hair behind her ear. “There was a Konoha ninja in Shigandan? Why?”

“Konoha was approached six months ago with an offer. We would be paid to clear sections of forest of traps and bandits. Besides making it general safer in the Fire Nation, which we have a fundamental obligation to, we were promised intelligence on this village by someone who lived there.”

“We broke the deal we had with the village.”

“The Hokage decided to go through with it. It has always been suspicious that they rebuffed a ninja presence and Konoha dislikes blind spots. It was a good arrangement. Until the client, Kobayashi Naoko, killed himself. We were contacted by his mother, Kobayashi Mai, who was sceptical about their doctor’s conclusions. She requested an official shinobi investigation. We sent Akira. He has sent us progress reports, disguised as letters to his wife.”

“If we were sent to check up on him before we knew he had died, you must have been worried about him already.”

“The letters have been worrisome and have been growing increasingly erratic. Two days ago, he missed a check-in.”

“Is it possible that he actually killed himself?” Sasuke asked.

Kakashi shook his head. “Akira was an untroubled and loyal ninja of the leaf. He never would have done something like that.”

“Those three things are not mutually exclusive.”

“Healthy people don’t commit suicide, Sasuke. It doesn’t even cross their minds. That’s not how it works.”

Sakura nodded. “It’s not supposed to register as an option.”

Naruto fidgeted, the fabric of his yakuta scrunched between his fists. He wondered if he should say anything about this.

“I’ve thought about it.” Sasuke said carefully.

Sakura gasped. “Don’t joke about that.”

“I’m serious.”

“That’s not healthy, Sasuke. It’s not normal. Don’t you think it’s telling that out of all of us here, you’re the only who’s considered it?”

Naruto decided. “But he’s not the only one.”

Sakura gawked at Naruto. “What are you saying? You’re Naruto. You never feel sad. You never give up.”

“Of course I don’t. Every morning I get up to face another day. But it isn’t always easy. Sometimes it feels impossible. And when it feels particularly impossible…”

“…you wonder about giving up.” Sasuke said. He looked at Naruto with an expression the Uzumaki had never seen on his teammate before. “Not actually to do it. But to realise it’s still your choice to go on.”

“But your family…” Sakura started, before she realised who she was talking to.

“It’s not so great when you’re left behind by yourself. And there’s nobody left to care whether you join them.”

Sakura swatted both her boys on the head. “I’d care.”

Sasuke and Naruto both looked uncomfortable. Naruto eventually shrugged. “It’s better when we’re all together on missions. When I’m not alone.”

“Maa, we should definitely discuss these thoughts more, and I will be referring you to a therapist back home, but we need to focus on the mission. Sasuke, you agree with Naruto that neither of you are likely to do anything to yourselves while we’re still doing our duties?”

“There is a difference between thinking about it and actually doing it.” Sasuke looked offended.

“Fine. Then you agree that you don’t have many of these thoughts while we’re working together?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Then let’s put this on hold.” Kakashi hesitated a little while longer as if he was debating with himself whether he should leave it at that, before he continued his briefing on the mission. ”Assuming Akira was murdered and people thought it was suicide, what are the options?”

“They could have staged the scene.” Sasuke said.

Naruto nodded. “Or they could have tricked or coerced Akira himself into leaving false evidence before they killed him.”

“Or they could have drugged him.” Sakura said. “Induced suicidal tendencies.”

“Right.” Kakashi said. “We’ll meet up with Akira’s contractor tomorrow. She has the best chance to know more about the circumstances surrounding his death. For now, I want you to keep a close eye on each other. If any of us start acting strangely, it needs to be talked about. We need to be able to step in and check each other.”

“Do you think the food here…”

“If there was anything there, it was too subtle for me to detect. All the same, we should check the kitchen tomorrow to make sure.”

“How will we get away tomorrow? We explicitly promised to tell them where we are going.”

“I have a plan. It won’t be a problem.”

“And can we even go to sleep here? Is it safe?”

“We will treat this village as hostile territory. We’ll take shifts tonight, with help from Pakun and the other dog summons. I’ll take the first. But kids, it’s safer here than the forest. I won’t let what happened there happen again.”

The three genin nodded. Sakura and Sasuke left for their rooms, while Naruto lingered a little longer. “Did you know Akira well?”

“I worked with him sometimes.” Kakashi said, but the way he stared at the wall made Naruto think there was more there. “I just never thought he’d actually be gone.”

Naruto placed his hand on Kakashi’s arm. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.”

Naruto entered his bedroom to find Sasuke already in his futon. Naruto undressed quietly and grabbed the things he needed to get ready to sleep. He was more tired than he had been in ages and he could use the rest. But there was one thing he needed to address first.

“Hey, Sasuke… about what you said in there…”

“I don’t want to talk about it tonight.” Sasuke said.

_Right, why would he want to talk with an idiot like me?_

Naruto said nothing as he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

~*~

“Come on!” Naruto yelled back. “We’re almost there!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Sakura yelled back.

“Hold up!” Sasuke was panting. “You’re moving too fast.”

“Last one there is a shark!” Naruto giggled, moving past all the trees and the bushes. He could already hear the water. He was getting close.

It was mesmerizing when he stepped into the clearing. The shrine did not look abandoned. None of the wood was weathered, nor was the stone broken. The paint was not chipped and even nature seemed to respect the sanctity of the place.

“It’s beautiful.” Sakura said. “How did you hear about this?”

“Around.” Naruto grinned. “You haven’t even seen the best part yet. Just got to wait for Mr. Shark.”

Sasuke looked out of breath when he finally caught up. His face was the cutest shade of red. Naruto should make him run around more often. “I’m not… a shark.”

“Stop whining and follow us.” Naruto took the boy’s hand and dragged him along.

“I wanted to pay respects.”

“You can do that after.”

The air seemed fresher so high above the village. It was like a whole different world. It did not really surprise Naruto that their forefathers had considered this a holy site. There were worse things to do with your life than worshipping the mountain god.

They had to follow the river for a few minutes, but it was worth it when they saw the view.

_Naruto wondered what the village would think when they found his corpse at the bottom of the cliff._

“This is so beautiful!” Sakura said. “You can see the whole village from here. The lumbermills there to the right. And my family’s theatre. I didn’t know it looked so pretty from above.”

“There are so many trees around the village.” Sasuke said. He was smiling. “The forests go on for miles.”

“I wanted to show you guys.” Naruto said. “They say this place has special healing powers. A small dive into the water and you feel loads better.”

_“Don’t…”_

“Isn’t that dangerous, with the waterfall?” Sasuke asked.

“You go swimming by the shrine, dummy. You would have to be a really bad swimmer to get caught up then. Nothing a shark like you has to worry about.”

“That takes care of the two of us, but what about you?” Sakura asked. “If you’re not a shark, don’t you have something to worry about?”

“Nah, you know me.” Naruto grinned wide. “I’m a crane. If I ever get thrown off that cliff, I’ll spread my wings and soar.”

~*~

Naruto was on his back in the closet, Sasuke’s body on top of him. His hands moved over the other boy’s skin. They were dressed, but not for long. The dust coated their sweaty skins as they tried to disappear in each other. They were naked, but it was not cold. Sasuke was fire.

Then he was behind the stage. Sasuke was helping him dress and groped him every chance he got. Sasuke’s fingers were flames licking over his body and he was happy to be consumed. They were so lucky Naruto would be wearing something that could hide the tightness in his pants. He had to perform soon on a cold stage with broken heating and the costume change was taking longer than when they had rehearsed it. He would be late. He could not care less.

Then he was against a stone wall, giggling loudly as Sasuke tried to smother his neck with butterfly kisses. Water was coming from above them and soaking their clothes, their hair, every part of them. It was cold, but that was why it was so nice to have the other boy against him.

“Will you love me forever?” Sasuke asked. It was hard to understand him with all the other noise, but he was worth paying attention to.

“No matter what happens. Forever and ever. In this life and the next.”

“Even if you leave?”

“I’ll write you every day.”

“You could die. It’s dangerous.”

“It’s adventure! This is what I was made for. And you could come with me.”

“I can’t leave. You know that. I have to stay with my family.”

“Screw your family.”

“How about you screw me instead?”

Suddenly Naruto had other things on his mind than the argument.

~*~

There was a floor that was covered in blood and a stone tablet that shone like the moon.

“Please, help me.”

Like a demon under the night sky, shedding tears that would burn Naruto like acid.

Naruto did not have a choice. There was only one thing to do. “I’ll help. You shouldn’t be alone.”

~*~

Naruto was crying into Sasuke’s shoulder. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

“But I’m still here.” Sasuke said. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

“I don’t want to lose you, ever.” Naruto said. “You’re the most important person in my life. I don’t care who knows. I just want to be with you.”

Sasuke petted the other boy’s back. “I don’t ever want to leave you. We’ll go to Konoha together. Let’s make a promise. Nobody can ever separate us.”

“Nobody. We’ll never give up on each other.”

“Never. I promise. I’ll always love you, Sora.”

~*~

The sounds of the waterfall assaulted Naruto’s ears. It was hard to make out the words, but he knew what they said. He had heard them before. “I can’t go on without you.”

Naruto’s heart was beating out of his chest. He was talking, but he hardly realised what he was saying.

_“Every morning I get up to face another day. But it isn’t always easy. Sometimes it feels impossible. And when it feels particularly impossible you wonder about giving up. To realise it’s your choice to go on.”_

He chose not to go on.

Akira stepped off the ledge and stared as the ground came closer and closer.

~*~

Naruto was panting deeply as he woke up. This was the third night in a row he had these weird dreams. The second waterfall dream in three days.

“Are you okay, Naruto?” Sasuke was stirring.

Fuck. “I’m fine. Just need some water.”

Naruto folded up his futon and dragged it with him into the bathroom. This had never happened on a mission before. It had come close when they were in the Land of Waves, but he had made sure to train through the night when the moon was full. He hated the inevitable conversation. He just wanted a washing machine.

The blond genin took a quick shower, before changing into some clean clothes. He handwashed the stains out of the futon and his other clothes. It took some time, but he was satisfied with the results in the end. He hung them out to dry in a secluded area of the room. He just hoped this was the last time this happened. If not ever, then at least during this trip.

Sasuke was asleep again when he got back. Naruto really wanted to lay down again. This was the third night in a row that his sleep had been disturbed. He felt tired. Where the adrenaline had forced sleep away, now he just wished he could lay down again.

These dreams bothered him. He did not know what to think about them, nor how to interpret their meaning.

He went back into the entry hall. Kakashi greeted him as he passed his room.

“Anything wrong?”

“Just Sasuke’s snoring. I’m making some tea. Would you like some?”

“No thanks. Don’t wander too far.”

“I’ll stay close.”

Naruto borrowed a kettle from the kitchen and put it on the stove. There was an assortment of dried herbs nearby. He reached down to take a sniff.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Naruto had his kunai grasped as he turned around. It was only the innkeeper though.

“Medicinal cooking is a hobby of mine. That is extract of cypress tree and induces fever when inhaled raw. You need to cook it in milk before ingestion and then it will help you think. The tea you’re looking for is right here.” She put they tray of herbs aside, and grabbed a few containers from another shelf.

“I’m sorry if I woke you up.”

“It’s no trouble. I’m a bit of a night owl myself.”

Chiharu took two cups and poured tea leaves into them. “You seem like the kind of kid who would enjoy this blend. It’s a little on the sweeter side.”

Naruto brought one of the cups to his nose. “It smells lovely.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Did you have trouble sleeping?”

“Yeah. Just happens sometimes.”

“I could fix you a blend to help you sleep, if you want.”

“That’s all right.” Naruto looked over the many dried leaves on display. Sakura would kill him if he ingested anything she served without her okay. The tea was pushing it already, but she was drinking the tea too. “Just need a moment to calm down.”

“I can’t really blame you. Can’t imagine the kind of dreams you get, being a ninja.”

“It’s not so bad, usually. We’re just genin.”

“Can I ask... no, it’s silly.”

“Go ahead. I don’t mind.”

“How do you deal with following orders you don’t agree with? That was always the thing that scared me most about being a ninja.”

“Like... if your sensei is stupid? I just deal with that.”

“No, I mean if the order is morally evil. Like of you get a mission to hurt someone close to you. Like if they told you to kill your parents.”

Naruto took a breath and tried not to show his instinctual response. Nobody would ever be able to order him to do that. “Well, at the Academy we would have courses on practical mission skills. We’d pretend to be ninja on a mission and have fake clients to figure out. To prepare us for what was to come. We had to practice saying no to our superiors. I was really good at that. But our teachers wanted to make sure we understood that we can decline missions if they don’t feel right. Konoha just isn’t the kind of place where kids are tasked with attacking their parents.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” The woman said. She took the hot water from the stove and finished the tea for them.

“I’ve only ever heard awesome stories about Konoha ninja. I’ve wanted to be one for as long as I can remember. Didn’t you want to be a ninja when you grew up?”

“Every kid dreams of getting super powers and I was no exception. It’s easy to look at Konoha through rose-coloured glasses while you’re still young. It isn’t until we are teens that we are taught what comes with the life of a ninja.”

“Are all the adults here so negative about ninja?”

She chuckled. “It must seem that way to you. I don’t mean to be insulting. It’s just hard to wrap my head around the concept. You have been learning to fight since you were what, eight years old?”

“I entered early when I was six. But they don’t let us spar until we’re ten.”

“In this village, children are schooled until they are eighteen. Fulltime until they are twelve, after which they take on a practical apprenticeship with their families. Those who sign up to become guards don’t touch a real weapon until they’re twenty-one. We want to make sure kids have the time to decide what they want to do with their lives before we load them with responsibilities.”

“We’re not forced to become ninja and we can stop any time we want.”

“Like I said, I don’t blame you for getting super powers and wanting to use them. I just think there is a lot you could have learned and experienced before fully setting yourself on this path. There’s plenty of time to soar.”

Naruto almost dropped his tea. “Soar?”

“Ah, a local expression. I just meant there’s still enough time to excel.”

Naruto hesitated. He had never mentioned his dreams to anyone before, but he just had to know. “I think I head a kid mention that earlier.” Naruto said. “Where does it come from?”

“There’s a children’s play about a crane and a shark that become friends and go on an adventure together. It’s one of the first plays the kids learn to perform.”

Naruto did not know what to think of this. “If we ask around the theatre, I’ll see if they’re showing it soon. I’m curious about it.”

“Well, it was nice chatting with you but I will be heading back to bed. Unless there was anything else you needed?”

“Actually, do you have a spare futon? I spilled some water on mine.”

“There are spares in your room’s closet. Just leave the original to dry in the bathroom.”

“Thanks.” Naruto made his way back to his room. The futon was right where she had said it would be and it was easy to swap it out with the other one.

Sasuke grumbled awake and Naruto fled to the bathroom before he could ask any questions.

He checked the other futon was still hidden. He would have a clone put it in the bathroom where Chiharu had asked after the others had left. When he was satisfied, he gave Kakashi the signal that he could relieve him.

When he returned to his room, Sasuke was already dressed. He was sitting on his futon, sharpening his weapons.

“Where did you go?”

“Had some tea. Bit hard to sleep away from home. Don’t think I’ll be able to go to sleep again, so I told Kakashi he could go to bed.”

“I’ll join you for your shift.” Sasuke said. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“Oh?” Naruto’s cheeks flushed. Did Sasuke see him cleaning up his bedding?

“How do you get through it when you feel like giving up?”

Naruto did a double take. It was not the line of questioning he had been expecting, especially after he had gotten rebuffed before they had gone to sleep. “Well, I haven’t seriously considered it in a long time. Do you… do you feel like that regularly?”

“It used to be worse.” Sasuke said. He stared down at the kunai he was holding, neither of his hands moving anymore. “After what my brother did… it was only spite that kept me going.”

“I can see how you’d feel like that.”

“When all I’d feel was hate, I wondered if it wouldn’t be better to feel nothing at all.”

Naruto shook his head. “You know that’s not true, right? It’s always better to go on.”

“I know. It’s just not as easy for me to always remember it like you can.”

“It’s not easy for me, teme.”

“It’s like Sakura said.” Sasuke harshly dragged the knife across the stone in front of him, again and again in rough motions. “You don’t let anything bother you. It can’t be as bad for you as it has been for me if you can still act like this.”

“Shut up Sasuke. I’ve been alone all my life. I realised I could feel bad about it, or I could put a smile on my face and enjoy myself.”

“It’s not a choice, idiot.”

Naruto wanted to yell at his teammate. But he saw the trembling in the Uchiha’s fists, not matter how much the boy was trying to hide it. “Why can’t we make it one?”

“You can’t just decide to stop being alone. You can’t just stop having a dead family.”

“But you have us, don’t you?” Naruto asked. “Doesn’t that count for something?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Why not make it the same? Can’t we be your new family?”

“It’s not the same.” Sasuke repeated.

“Do you actually miss your family or is it just the idea of them? It’s not like you ever mention them or talk about them. If it were me, I wouldn’t shut up about them.”

“That’s why I said you had it easier.” Sasuke said. When he looked back up at Naruto, his eyes were puffy from tears. “You can’t even imagine how much it hurts to talk about them, do you?”

Naruto flinched.

“Mom would welcome me home with a different blend of tea each day. Dad would show me off to his brothers. They were the best people in this world. My aunt Minako lived next door and watched me whenever they were gone. She snuck me candies and I called her Aunty Taiyaki. Most of my nightmares involve the three of them. Is this what you wanted me to talk about?”

“Sasuke, stop it…”

“Apparently I don’t love them if I don’t talk.” Sasuke said. “Who else do you want to know about? My brother was clan heir, but I was still expected to know everyone as the spare. How they were related to me. And every single one of them knew me. I had all that and it was taken away from me. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, to lose my family, my friends, my whole clan.”

Sasuke stood, still holding the kunai he had just sharpened. He was clenching it so hard that his hand started to pale. “Can you honestly say you know what that pain is like? That you didn’t have it easier?”

“Fuck you, teme.” Naruto had to fight back tears. “Of course that sucks. But you have no business telling me I had it easier. I don’t know how much it hurts to talk about your family, because I never had a family to lose. Just a huge hole inside of me that never got filled at all.”

“You can’t know…”

“I fucking know I don’t. Do you know how many nights I cried myself asleep, because I didn’t know anything about the people who put me on this world? Whether they were good people or bad. Whether they were funny or beautiful or skilled or cruel? Whether they could have loved a wreck like me? I didn’t get to mourn names and faces and memories. I had to mourn people while I had no idea what they even looked like.”

Sasuke looked disgusted at the idea, like he could not even imagine it.

“At least the other orphans had hope. Any excuse the caregiver had, even if it was just me waking up screaming from bad dreams, she’d yell at me. And the first chance she got, she evicted me to my own apartment to be truly alone, impossible to ever get adopted.”

_Nobody will ever accept a monster like you as family anyway._

“She shouldn’t have done that.”

“I was happier living on my own.” Naruto sighed. It was the one thing he was grateful to her for. “I didn’t have it easy at the Academy like you. I had to fight every day to stay in. And I didn’t need any unnecessary distractions like her.”

“I meant that she should not have yelled at you for having a bad dream. That’s normal kid behaviour.”

“She was stressed out. It must have scared her to have the Kyuubi so close near all the other kids.”

“It was wrong of her.” Sasuke insisted again. “That’s no way to treat a child and I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Naruto was waiting for the insult that was sure to follow.

Instead, Sasuke pressed on. “I guess both our childhoods sucked. I shouldn’t have said you had it easier.”

Naruto was confused how to respond to Sasuke when he was actually being sincere. He blinked stupidly at the boy. “Thanks?”

Sasuke shrugged and sat back down to continue working on his weapons.

Naruto sat down on his futon and tried to get comfortable. There was a long night to go. “I shouldn’t have said the things I did either. I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry you lost your family.”

“Thanks, dobe.”

It was silent for a very long time. Sasuke eventually finished sharpening everything he could, and laid back on his futon too.

“I wasn’t being fair, before.” Sasuke admitted.

“Hmmm?”

“My dad was pretty mean.” Sasuke said. “He had a whole clan to lead, but he wasn’t very kind to my mother or me.”

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I think I do.” Sasuke said. “I have been keeping this to myself for too long. I said he was the best, but he also cast an ugly shadow.”

“What was he like?”

“He knew I was going to be a ninja before I was even born. Before I had a chance to choose it. I disappointed him by not being as good as my brother. When I was young, I thought there was more to it. But I guess he just didn’t care about me.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” Naruto said.

“You didn’t even know him.”

“But I know you. You’re an asshole, but you’re a good ninja. You were probably a lot easier to deal with too, without all the emo.”

“Dobe.” Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Naruto reached out and grabbed Sasuke’s hand. “He would have been insane not to like you.”

They heard a noise in the distance. They stopped their conversation and stilled their breathing while they tried to figure out what it had been. Last time a noise had disturbed their watch, bandits had attacked and almost killed Sasuke.

Sasuke wrapped his fingers tightly around Naruto’s hand. Whatever it was, they would deal with it together.

It was, apparently, just the normal sounds of an old wooden house at night adjusting to the temperature. They stayed silent and paranoid for a few minutes more, until they could be sure nobody was coming for them.

“You know,” Sasuke said, “you don’t need to hide it when you have a nightmare.”

Naruto grew a little paler. “I wasn’t having…”

“I’m not the caregiver at the orphanage. You don’t have to hide the nightmares. And you don’t have to hide the other thing either. I know it doesn’t happen every night or we would have noticed on missions already.”

Naruto tried to pull back his hand, but Sasuke was holding on.

“We’re a team, Naruto. And you’re right. We’re not alone anymore. If you need help with anything, you can just ask for it. We’re right here.”

Naruto brought his free hand up to rub at his watering eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever really had people around me to help me with this.”

“Not since the orphanage, you mean?” Sasuke said, already fearful of the answer.

“The first time I had… an accident… in bed, the caregiver made me do the washing. I screwed up and had to sleep on scratchy and shrunken sheets for weeks. I taught myself to be better at it, forced myself to learn.”

Sasuke squeezed Naruto’s hand a little. “Is that orphanage still there, because I think I would like a word with the people there.”

Naruto chuckled. “It closed down. But we could break into the Hokage’s office and find out where she lives now.”

“We should do that.”

Naruto smiled. “Tell me more about your family, please? If you don’t mind…”

Sasuke nodded. He talked about his last birthday where the whole clan came to visit. His mother had made him a special cake, but he had to wait until after dinner to eat it. Aunty Taiyaki had snuck him a smaller cake and distracted his mom so he could eat it.

They talked until the sun rose and they both felt a lot better for it.

“Kakashi will be waiting.” Sasuke said.

Naruto did not want it to end, but they had a mission to do. They gathered up their ninja gear, met up with Sakura, and then headed into Kakashi’s bedroom.

The jounin was already dressed and ready to go.

“This is what we’ll do.” Kakashi said. “Naruto will make three clones who will follow my own Kage Bunshin to city hall. The real Team 7 will actually be heading to the Kobayashi family.”

“Won’t we stand out?”

“We’ll transform, of course. This town isn’t used to visitors, so we’ll have to take on the appearance of the locals.” He made the hand signs for the Henge no jutsu and in his place stood a woman with long black hair. “Do you still remember?” he asked in a soft female voice.

Sasuke was first to respond. With a puff of smoke he was replaced by a kid half his age, looking sheepishly around. He really knew how to get into character.

Naruto and Sakura joined him, turning into the big brother and sister of the family they had seen the day before.

“For this to work, we need to be silent and avoid confrontation. It’s still early out, but we will stay in shadows to be sure. The clones will exit the inn normally. We have to improvise.”

Kakashi led them through the central court, before jumping over a thin wall that led to a quiet alley. Kakashi must have scouted it the night before, considering how useful it was for their uses. From there it was easy to choose a moment to slip into the street without being noticed.

They made their way to the woods where the Kobayashi family was said to reside. Kakashi played the role of the housewife well. He regularly checked back to see how his ‘children’ were doing and led them carefully through the streets. When he so often acted half a moron, it was easy to forget the man was a jounin of Konoha, an elite among the deadliest assassins. But he was on a mission now and he was the image of professionalism.

They made it to a house that stood apart from the others. The garden around it was unkempt and almost seemed intended to ward off potential visitors. Kakashi made his way to the door and knocked.

A woman answered. She was in her forties, with brown hair that had started to grey hanging just past her shoulders. She wore black formal clothes and seemed confused to see them. “Himiko? What are you doing here?”

Kakashi made a hand signal. “Sorry to drop by unannounced Mai-san. Might we have a word?”

She took a step back in surprise. “Of course.” Though it visibly troubled her to do so, she tried to put on a smile. “Of course you can come in.”

As soon as the door was closed behind them, Kakashi dropped the illusion. The rest of Team 7 followed suit. “Kobayashi Mai, is it true that he’s dead?”

“Yes.” She said. “Two days ago.”

“I need you to tell me what happened.”

“What happened is that you sent me an unstable ninja. Do you know how dangerous that was? I’m already under scrutiny. And now you show up here, going undercover. You’re breaking too many rules. This is not the deal I made.”

“I’m sorry, madam, but there is no record of the deal you made with Akira. We just know the emergency signal was sent out. I presume that was you?”

“Yes. Akira showed me how to do it in one of his paranoid episodes.”

“What was the deal you made with him?”

“He would investigate my son’s supposed suicide and nobody would know I had contacted him. He said he would kill himself before he would let anybody find out. At the time, I thought he was exaggerating.”

Kakashi sighed. “Is there somewhere we can sit down? This will be a long conversation, it seems.”

“I will make tea. Sit down right over here.”

They made themselves comfortable in the woman’s living room. There were some pictures of her son and her scattered around the room. On one cabinet, there was an intricate wooden sculpture of a large branching tree.

Mai came back a few minutes later. “I’m not quite sure where to start.”

“Tell us why you decided to contact us about your son’s death.”

“They said he had killed himself. I could not believe that and I still cannot. Naoko was a strange child when he grew up, but he always cared for me deeply. He had some trouble with the family, but everything was looking up for him. He was making money and talking about getting his own place.”

“He still lived here?”

“His room is upstairs and exactly the way I left it. Akira wanted to check it out too.”

Sakura looked pensive. “Suicidal tendencies don’t mix well with people making plans for the future. I can understand why you would be suspicious.”

“I was not sure what to do about it, until I saw the Konoha letters in his room. When I realised he had been contacting ninja, I knew something shady must have happened. And since you people got him into this mess, you owe him.”

“That is when Konoha sent Akira.”

“He first contacted me at one of the shops in town. Introduced himself as a trader from a nearby village interested in making a contract with my family. He flashed the hand signal, same as you, and I knew he had ties to Konoha. He came here to make the deal.”

“He agreed to take the case on and leave you out of it. What about payment?”

“I paid half the mission fair up front. If Akira had not spent it by the time he had died, it must have been confiscated. I had no way to claim it from his corpse, of course.”

“How did Akira come across as you at that time?”

“Like a responsible young man. I had never seen a ninja before, outside of the yearly tests, but it felt like I could trust him at first.”

“What changed?”

“Akira changed. He met up with me every few days to discuss new findings and show me his progress. At first he was to-the-point, but later on he started theorizing in his reports. He made baseless accusations and fantastical conjecture. He was convinced somebody was poisoning his sake.”

“He thought he was being poisoned?”

“He did not drink sake though.” Mai said. “He stayed here the first two weeks, and he never had a sip of it. When I offered, he was adamant he could not drink while on duty.”

“Maybe he was drinking it elsewhere?” Sakura asked. “Off duty?”

“Maybe.” Kakashi said. “But sake was never his choice of drink.”

“Did he show other signs of being unstable?”

“He was jittery and had bags under his eyes. I don’t know where he was spending his nights, but it would surprise me if it was anywhere comfortable.”

Kalashi nodded. “What was the last time you saw him?”

“The morning of his death. He had seemed to have lost all composure. He had been spending his days at the theatre, convinced that the plays could unravel the mysteries. He had written down the first character of every spoken sentence. He was talking about using the local library to figure out the code. When I told him it seemed like a stretch, he started crying. He gathered up his things and left.”

“Where was he found?”

“At Lover’s Rock. He jumped off a cliff there.”

Naruto’s heart started beating a little faster. “He jumped?”

Kakashi nodded. “Where is that?”

“At the edge of town, to the eastern mountains. It is hard to miss, right next to the waterfall.”

Naruto swallowed. “Near the shrine?”

“Yeah, to the old mountain gods. I’m surprised you were able to see it from town.”

Naruto’s head was spinning. He had a weird feeling ever since he had come to this village. Had this been a prophetic dream all along? He had dreamt of Akira jumping and it had happened. Did that mean all those dreams of him jumping were a prediction? “I need to use the bathroom.”

Mai pointed the way and he made his way to the facilities. He locked the door behind him and splashed water on his face.

_“Does that really feel like something you’d do?”_

He tried imagining the First Hokage’s kind smile.

_“You have not considered suicide for years. It does not make sense.”_

It was so hard to hear the Second’s voice without his face nearby.

_“You’re stronger than this, Naruto.”_

Jiji was easier to picture. He could feel the Third’s hand on his shoulder.

And then there was the Fourth. He stood proudly on Naruto’s other side, with hair as blond as his. He was smiling reassuringly, like there was no doubt at all.

That was right. He was Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage of the Village of the Leaf. This was a coincidence and nothing more.

His breathing steadied, he tried to get a grip. He had not left under the best circumstances. He had to have an explanation he could give the other laters.

He started going through the cabinets, looking for anything unusual. There were towels and some cleaning products. Nothing incriminating.

He sighed, brainstorming an excuse. They would never believe he skipped out in the middle of the questioning just to take a piss. He had to figure something out. Unless… he remembered Sasuke’s reassurances. It occurred to him that he could just tell them the truth.

Naruto dried his face and went back out.

“There is a family function tonight. I have some pictures of some family members that moved to another town you can use for your ‘henge’. I’ll vie for you.”

“That would be much appreciated. And you have no idea who Akira got his information from?”

“He spoke to them outside of my presence.”

“I see. We will be back tonight then.”

Kakashi moved outside.

“Forgive our sensei.” Sakura said. “He’s not great with people on his better days. And Akira was like family to him.”

She winced. “I didn’t know that.”

“I just wanted to thank you for all your help and say how sorry we are about what happened to your son. We will get to the bottom of this.”

Smart of Sakura to exaggerate Kakashi’s relationship with Akira, Naruto thought. It excused his strange behaviour and hopefully pacified the woman a little while they investigated.

They made their way around the town. It was the easiest way to get to the cliff without catching anyone’s notice.

Naruto made his way to the front of the group without too much thought. Before he knew it, he was leading them through the bushes and the trees.

“It’s not much further now.”

“How do you know?”

Naruto shrugged. He was dreading what they would find, but it also felt familiar.

They forest opened to a shrine. It had the shape of his dream, but it had weathered considerably. He only recognised it when he squinted. There were flowers overgrowing the structure and the wood had started to peel. He stared in wonder.

“What is this place?”

“The shrine to the mountain god.” Naruto said. “It was said that nature itself would never touch this place.”

“Where did you hear that? The innkeeper?”

Naruto stepped into the river.

“Isn’t that dangerous with the waterfall?” Sakura asked.

“Don’t be such sharks.” Naruto whispered. He stepped out of the stream anyway, following the river.

He saw his team following him gently. He also saw a bashful Sasuke and teasing Sakura having so much fun discovering someplace new. And it was about to get better.

The sight of the village was familiar. There were new buildings and some prominent features were missing. But it was mostly the same as his dream, mostly.

“This is where he jumped.” Naruto said.

“It’s too close to the waterfall to match the woman’s description.”

Naruto shook his head. He stepped closer to the edge. “Right from here.”

“What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know why.” Naruto said. “I have a feeling.”

Sasuke stood beside Naruto for a while, looking down. Then he jumped.

Naruto startled, gripping after him in shock. “What the _fuck_ are you doing?!”

Sasuke seemed unfased, walking back along the side of the stone cliff. “We’re ninja, dobe.”

Naruto flushed. It felt wrong to charge his feet with chakra and follow Sasuke, on this edge where he remembers jumping month after month. He wondered if he should say something, but they all looked too concentrated. Talking about it could wait until after they had examined the scene.

Sakura and Kakashi went ahead of him. They moved down the cliff, looking at any signs of foul play. Naruto lowered himself slowly over the edge, unable to completely trust his chakra to keep him stuck. It felt like the first water walking exercises where he was more likely to end up soaked than to find his footing.

Strangely, he did not fall. His body listened and he easily walked down. His teammates were taking their time to look for abnormalities, as if this was not a dangerous canyon where someone had died by suicide.

He was happy when he reached the bottom and could stand vertically again. He knew where Akira had ended up. The wind had pushed against him falling down and the ground had caught him a little bit away.

There were still some bloodstains, even if the body had been removed.

Kakashi joined besides him. “You found this quickly.”

“I told you, I have a feeling with this place.” Naruto wondered how it would have looked to find Akira. He always wondered in his dreams but he had never seen it. Never seen the villagers react.

“This jump wouldn’t normally hurt a ninja.” Sasuke said. “There are several branches along the way that he could have grabbed. He could have slowed his fall. He could have softened the landing. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Unless he willingly jumped.”

“People don’t face death with that much dignity.” kakashi said. “With a jump, you have to stay certain for the whole time falling. Any doubt would break the attempt.”

“Any more insight from mysterious feelings, Naruto?” Kakashi asked, looking around.

Naruto took a good look. The water crashed on the rocks beside them. It was hard to understand each other over the sound. They were out of the way though. He could see why it was called Lover’s Rock. He could imagine couples coming here to sneak away. Konoha had these places too. Usually with some hidden nook to carve their names.

The trees were untarnished though. Nobody had even touched them. In the back of his mind was shock at the very idea of defacing a tree like that. Their pride as a village was in caring for the forest and making quality wood, after all.

The stone wall was clean as well. Hard material that was difficult to chisel. Not impossible, but it would be loud and any couple attempting it would easily get caught. Unless there was something even louder shielding them…

He remembered feeling wet with water crashing on top of him. The waterfall.

There was only a foot of room to move behind the water. But he could see where couples had left their marks. Small hearts were scattered across the wall. He went to the one in the centre, his clothes soaked by the time he got close enough to run his finger over the engraving.

It read “Sora + Soka”. It felt like he remembered bringing the masonry supplies to do it. That he remembered his boyfriend’s look of surprise when he showed what he had done. Their special place, now forever for the two of them.

“You’ll catch a cold if you stand there much longer.” Kakashi said from the side of the waterfall, before glancing at all the hearts. “There are a lot of names here. Is there any special meaning to that one?”

“It’s the original.” Naruto said confidently. When he took a closer look he could see more evidence for the claim. It was the most weathered. All the others seemed positioned to fit around this first one. But mostly, he had just known.

Sasuke pointed at a different spot on the wall. “Do you see what it says here?”

“Kira and Hiro.” Kakashi read. “It can’t be.”

“It’s recent. Can’t be more than a week old.” Sasuke said. “It’s possible Akira had a relationship with someone in town. I don’t think that was supposed to happen.”

“No, it would not have been professional. A relationship while on a mission is out-of-character enough, let alone telling someone he wasn’t really named Tori.” Kakashi said. “But it’s a good lead for where he might have been staying his final days. We’ll keep it in mind.”

“You should get out of there, Naruto.” Sasuke said.

But Naruto had trouble hearing them. Part of him was a genin standing at the scene of a murder. The other part of him was getting kisses from a boyfriend that smelled like apple cider.

He felt a hand on his arm and it felt safe. “Just a little longer.”

“Naruto?”

He blinked a few times, before he fully realized it was Sasuke standing next to him. He moved out from under the waterfall. It was absolutely freezing. He shivered wildly.

“We’ll make a fire.” Sasuke said. “By the shrine where they won’t run into us.”

It was easy to gather the wood, and even easier to hide it in the shrine’s building where the smoke would be more difficult to notice. Naruto and Sasuke hung up their soaking clothes to dry and sat in their underwear by the fire to warm up.

“What do you want to do next?” Sakura asked. “The Kobayashi woman knew few details and the cliff showed no evidence either.”

“We examine the body, first.” Kakashi said. “Check for signs of poisoning and prepare it for the journey back to Konoha. I’d prefer to come back with answers though.”

“Because he was your friend.” Sakura said.

“Yes.” Kakashi admitted.

“Did you know him for long?”

“He was a child genius, like me. We joined the ninja forces around the same time. He supported me when my father passed away too. But we haven’t been friends for a while now.”

“What happened?”

“We handled the war differently. We had both lost precious people. I tried to bury myself in work, he decided to stop trying. He refused most missions, especially if there was fighting involved. He started hanging around civilians more than ninja. When I was promoted to jounin, we stopped running into each other all together.”

“What was he like?”

“He was a great child, but a little harder to get along with as he grew up. He was a writer. When we were kids, he’d make me act out the small plays he had written. He’d make us rival super heroes, both of us trying to save the world but finding friendship along the way.”

“I have to admit, I don’t see you as much of an actor.”

“And he’d never let me forget it. He’d yell at me for screwing up the lines or lacking emotion. He wondered how I could ever be a ninja, improvising my way through hostile territory, if I couldn’t even pull off a rehearsed disguise.”

“Funny that he ended up doing so many undercover missions.”

“I think he liked pretending to be someone he was not.” Kakashi sighed, before turning to look at Naruto. “Is there something you need to tell us?”

“What, why?”

“You’re acting strangely. Zoning out and having strangely confident impulses to follow strangely accurate instincts.”

“I have been sleeping badly.” Naruto scrunched his fists. His stomach felt cramped and it was hard to form the words. “Because of bad dreams.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Really?”

“Don’t make fun.” Sasuke warned.

“I’m not. It’s just, with the big deal you were making of it, I was assuming it was a lot worse. Do you have any idea how many medical conditions have insomnia as a symptom? So, it’s just bad dreams. That can happen to all of us. Is the lack of sleep affecting you?”

Naruto shook his head. “It’s what’s in the dreams that’s bothering me. Last night, I dreamt of Akira jumping off that waterfall. I dreamt of the shrine and I dreamt of local kids playing here. The dreams are really vivid.”

“You might have been poisoned.” Kakashi said. “Or it could be genjutsu. You would be most vulnerable.”

“It’s not.” Naruto said.

“How can you be sure? Sakura, can you try to break any genjutsu on him?”

Naruto rolled his eyes, even as he offered his arm to Sakura. She released a burst of chakra through his pathways, enough to jolt his system.

“I don’t feel any different now. But more importantly, I’ve been having these dreams for years now. Not as often, or as extended, but certainly of that waterfall.”

“You’ve been dreaming of Akira’s death?”

“No, not Akira’s.” Naruto said. “In the dreams, it’s me who jumps.”

“And you’ve been dreaming of this regularly?” Kakashi asked. “Why haven’t you ever told anyone?”

“It wasn’t a big deal.” Naruto said. “Just once a month on the full moon. It’s a bit spooky, but not that much worse than any other nightmare.”

“How sure are you that you’ve been dreaming of this particular cliff?” Sakura asked.

“I’m very sure. In the dream, I’m standing on the edge and taking in everything.”

“Could it be that coming here made the dream change?”

“I know it’s this village.” Naruto said. “It’s never looked like Konoha and there’s always been a waterfall. I just don’t understand why it’s this place.”

“You said the dreams were more extensive now?”

“I don’t just dream of the cliff anymore. It’s other things as well.”

“Like what?”

Naruto looked at Sasuke. His teammate was listening to him. He was sitting in just his black briefs. His muscled torso was fully exposed and seemed polished with the dampness still remaining. Part of him wanted to reach out and touch the Uchiha. Feel the fire. He did not have the nerve and he had never had. He could not even share the dreams where he did.

“In one dream I was taking a boy and a girl to this shrine.” Naruto said. “And to watch the village from the cliff. It looked less old though. And they were all talking together like they had known each other for years.”

“What did they look like?”

“Well, like you and Sasuke, actually. But they did not act like you guys ever would. Oh, and they were talking about a story with a crane and a shark. The inn lady said that’s a pretty popular story around here.”

“I don’t know if we can put any stock into these dreams.” Kakashi said. “It sounds to me like chakra impression.”

Sakura gasped. “Those are real?”

Naruto just looked more confused.

She turned to her teammate. “Sometimes, chakra can store certain memories.”

Kakashi nodded. “There have been a few reported cases where it was claimed shards of memories remained after death. It’s not very accurate though. Different moments in time merge and the holes that remain are filled in with your own imagination.”

“But you think these things actually happened to someone?”

“Perhaps. It’s almost impossible to tell. There are not many records of this happening. But the more the imprint is watched, the weaker it becomes.”

“But these were old memories.”

“It does require a certain resonance before they can be seen by anyone. There aren’t that many chakra users around.” Kakashi noted. “It’s possible the memories lasted this long.”

Sasuke frowned. “Then why did he see Akira jumping?”

Kakashi sighed. “Probably just one of the holes in the memory. However strange this is and no matter how much I appreciate the help figuring this village out, these dreams don’t seem directly related to Akira’s death.”

“Quite a coincidence, though.” Sasuke remarked.

Sakura put her hand on Naruto’s knee. “If you’re having trouble sleeping, I can make something for that. It’ll help you get through the night.”

“That would be awesome. Thanks, Sakura-chan.”

Sasuke nudged Naruto’s shoulder with his own. “I told you they’d help you.”

Naruto smiled. It was good to trust his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update on Thursday, November 14th.


	4. Warm as Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto investigates Akira's body, attends a party, goes clubbing and meets a princess.

Akira’s corpse seemed to be preserved in good conditions. It was kept in a basement under the physician’s house, which had been easy to break into. Not many people around were interested in dead bodies, let alone possessed the skills to pick locks. The room was cold and the one window did little to bring light inside, especially so late in the day. They had to light a candle to see.

The body was right in the middle of the room on a metal slab. There was a white sheet over it until Kakashi removed it. “It’s him.”

Naruto found it hard to look at the body. He had not seen many dead people before. Though ninja could kill, their team preferred to fight until incapacitation. He remembered Haku, the soft and sweet ninja who had sacrificed himself in front of them. Kakashi had taken care of the body then, which made it easier for Naruto to pretend it had not even happened. But death became a lot harder to ignore when it stared back.

The man had grey-blond hair and a simple face. He was ghostly pale now, but Naruto could imagine the colour. He could imagine him walking around Konoha. They might even have met at some point. He had the kind of face that could easily get lost in the crowd. He must have been a good undercover agent.

Kakashi reached into his pockets and pulled out a pair of white latex gloves. It took him a little while to fit them over his trembling fingers.

By the time he finished, Sakura had already prepped similarly, even laying out several scalpels and implements next to the body. “I can do this by myself, if this is too hard for you.”

“No, I need to help with this.” Kakashi said. “You’re an exceptional genin, but we can’t miss anything.”

Sasuke was on the lookout by the small window, guarding their retreat. Naruto stood near the stairway, checking for any sign of someone coming downstairs. He was blocked from seeing most of the examination and it soothed his elevated heart rate considerably.

Sakura gave a quick examination with medicinal jutsu, as far as she had gotten to learning them. She drew blood for tests and plucked some hairs from his head.

Kakashi checked the body for irregularities. “I don’t see any evidence of injuries sustained before the fall.”

“Which makes coercion less likely.” Sakura said.

“He’s pretty broken up. There could be injuries that were masked by the blunt force trauma.”

“I can’t sense much of his chakra system anymore. There are, however, no signs of genjutsu tampering. There are also no signs of stretching of the chakra pathways, which would have occurred if he had used a big ninjutsu in a fight before his death.”

“How’s the blood?”

Sakura carefully spread the container drop by drop over a large testing paper. She had to hold up the light to see. “Konoha’s lab will have more accurate results, but there are signs of psychosomatic poisons.”

“Is the dosage high enough to explain his suicide?”

She shook her head. “It’s not even enough to explain the erratic behaviour Mai described. The best way to understand these numbers, is if he were poisoned with something a few days before his death and the effects had already started to decline.”

“If he was getting better, then why did he kill himself?” Naruto asked.

“Not because of the drugs.”

Kakashi sighed. “No leads then.” He took out a large scroll and carried Akira on top of it with Sakura’s help. When he activated the scroll, the body turned to smoke. Another scroll was activated to produce a fake body. It took just a bit of sculpting to make him indistinguishable from the original. “Any of his possessions nearby?”

Sakura nodded. She had found a box nearby which she emptied out on a table. “He wasn’t carrying any weapons on him.”

“At least none that could have revealed him as a ninja.” Kakashi said. By unscrewing Akira’s pen in the right way, it revealed a single senbon hidden in its casing. “He was undercover, but he wasn’t stupid.” Kakashi pocketed the pen with the secret compartment and replaced it with a regular one.

“It seemed most of the documentation was related to trade deals. Everything you would expect with a visiting trader. Are there any codes in this?”

Kakashi scanned the documents. “No. It’s missing all the standard Konoha signs. If he was really trying to hide communication in here, it was with a code of his own invention. I’ll go over them in detail tonight and see if there’s anything more to it. They just seem like notes from talks with the Kobayashi family.”

Naruto looked at the thick document “How many people did he talk to?” He asked. “I thought he was only looking for clues into the son’s suicide.”

Kakashi leaved through the document again. “Dozens of them. That does seem excessive.”

“Do you think he was suspecting someone in the family?”

“Possibly. We should be careful what we tell Naoko’s mother. If she wasn’t aware of the extent of the investigation, there’s a good chance Akira was keeping it from her for a reason.” Kakashi took out some paper and started copying the contents to leave behind. He made sure to regularly rewrite sentences to that any possible code would be scrambled in the process.

“Is there anything else to his possessions?”

“He had some money with him. No keys or other information. Just one more thing.” Sakura said. She showed the little sculpture to her team members. It was small enough that it easily fit in her hand.

“Is that…?”

“Yeah.” Sakura said. “A crane, made from wood. Just like in Naruto’s story.”

“Did he keep anything else with it?”

“No. I wonder who made it.”

“Luckily, we’re about to be in a room of carpenters. I’m sure one of them will have some idea.”

~*~

It was a large room, filled with wooden fixtures. Each column in the room was intricately carved. One showed animals from the bottom to the top. Not a single species seemed to be repeated, though there were a few feet left uncarved at the top. Another column showed human faces, each with a name and date carved into their necks. Yet another was a collection of different textures and patterns in patchwork. It looked like it could have been someone practicing, but each patch was executed without any mistakes.

Against the walls of the room were tables, where some of the women sat and talked. Most of the men were scattered around in their own little groups. Everyone was formally dressed, greeting each other and talking business.

“Meet my guests.” Mai said. “These merchant relatives are visiting and trying to figure out how to move on with their business after the unfortunate incident two days ago.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you.” Kakashi had dressed for the occasion. He had taken on the guise of an older man, dignified with age.

“Likewise. My name is Juko. I manage the cedar woods with my family. I was sorry to hear of the trader’s death. Were you acquainted?”

“Friendly rivals. I recommended him to our family when he needed a regular supply of wood. I had been reluctant to poach his clients in his absence, but after his death they all needed someone new to deal with. They’re still interested in this village’s produce.”

“Did you form much of a deal with him?” Sasuke asked. He had taken the appearance of an older teenager, almost twenty years old.

“We had only spoken a few times. He was still trying to figure out which type of wood suited his clients’ purposes best.”

“I see.” Sasuke said. “Could you tell us what you discussed? That would help a great deal.”

Sakura was nearby, making notes. Naruto had taken a different route. They thought it would be too suspicious to have team 7 appear at the same place in the same number. Instead, Naruto had been assigned to help wait the event. He was in the middle of the crowd, catching only glimmers of conversation.

“He was especially interested in cypress wood. It has been hard to come by.”

“Are you sure?” Sakura asked. “I noticed there were large stores of cypress sold to a nearby village in the last six months.”

“Yes, by a rogue element in the family. We’re still not sure how he managed it, but he took the secret to his grave.”

“He passed away?”

The man nodded. “Young Naoko-kun died four weeks ago. You might ask around his family if you are adamant about cypress wood. They’ll tell you the same thing. They have no way to provide quantity. You’ll come back to cedar.”

“A very decent alternative.” Kakashi said. “Almost as good as cypress. Your business must have profited from your nephew’s death.”

“His deliveries were too irregular to affect our sales.”

“Still, there must have been some resentment.” Kakashi tried.

“He was peculiar, but he was still family. Nobody would dream of hurting him. In fact, we were all scouting him since he had not come out for any family branch yet. There was no resentment. And if anyone killed him to get to his secret, they failed spectacularly. Nobody took over the cypress business Naoko had created. We don’t know why he chose to jump off Lover’s Rock, but no foul play was found by our law officials.”

“It could have been missed.”

“We have a good doctor in this town. But even if she missed anything and there was foul play, I guarantee you it was nobody in this family. No one would be capable of it. We’re not like those shady characters from the brick district. Naoko visited a seedy bar there, you know. If anyone’s to blame, my money would be on one of the degenerates that frequent it.”

“It sounds like you have some theories. Did you suspect anyone in particular?”

“No. I’ve just heard the rumours. I told the police, but they refused to investigate it when the coroner declared it a suicide. They said they had better things to do.”

“But weren’t they suspicious about the location? I understand our fellow trader used the same spot to take his own life.”

“They are not alone. Over the years, many people fell to their deaths from the cliff’s edge.”

“From the name, you wouldn’t think it’d be a popular spot for people to take their own lives.”

“I can understand the confusion, but you’ve misunderstood. A little over sixty years ago, two boys were pining over a girl. She liked them, but her parents disapproved. So, she rejected them both and they decided they could not go on living. It’s called Lover’s Rock because that’s where those lovers died.”

“That’s terrible.”

“It’s part of this town’s history and something we can’t hide from our children, much as we’ve tried. Teenagers especially experience love and loss in the most dramatic ways and get influenced to mimic the lovers in the story.”

“How many have there been over the years?”

“I’m sad to say it’s close to a dozen each year. Not all of them are teenagers, like the trader last month, but a lot of them are troubled. Actually, let me show you some of the coffin designs we did with our cyprus woods.”

Naruto was called away to take care of a small puddle where someone had spilled a drink. He brought a rag to the floor and started cleaning.

“There are ninja in the village.” One man nearby said. “Did you hear?”

“Four of them. They arrived yesterday. My nephew was stationed at the gate.”

“I can’t believe it. It feels like just a few weeks ago that Konoha did their last tests. They have no business coming here.”

“My nephew said they forced their way in and demanded to stay at the inn instead of the city hall. Who knows what they’re getting up to?”

“It is said ninja can turn invisible. They might even be listening to this very conversation.”

“I hate it when there are ninja around.” The man sighed. “It complicates everything. Do you think they will find out about the play?”

“What did I just say? The wall have ears right now. Don’t speak a word of it as long as they are still here.”

“It’s just… it’s one thing to know it exists. It’s another to know it’s being performed.”

“I swear, if you say one more thing about it...”

“You’re being paranoid.”

“You weren’t out there during the ninja wars.” He said. He sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “They aren’t human. They kill without regret and come out of nowhere.”

Naruto shuffled away, before he lost control and spoke up against the men. He grabbed a tray with snacks and made sure to make his way back to his teammates. Kakashi had just taken out the figurine.

“I don’t recognise this one.” Juko said. “But it’s crude work. None of our fine craftsmen would make it like that, but it’s too sophisticated to be someone out of the family. I recognise the techniques. Maybe one of our carpenters trying to branch out in his spare time? You’d have to ask around.”

“I understand the crane is part of a local story.”

“The crane and the shark, yes. It’s one of the first plays our children are taught to perform. It stays with us all, but especially those who stay with the theatre.”

“Could you tell us what it’s about?”

“Terribly. I haven’t heard that story in years. Why don’t you come by tomorrow and meet my kids? I’ll show you around the cedar trees too.”

The evening went by steadily. Kakashi made his way through the room, familiarising himself with the different parts of the family. They had similar stories. Akira had been talking with them about their business and asking about Naoko’s business with the cypress wood. None of them had a clue how he had managed to get such quantities of wood.

Both cedar and cypress trees were cultivated in family owned plots of land. They took time to grow and special attention to cut down. All of the tree groves were well-documented and none had any missing trees.

The wild trees outside the village were madness to harvest. It was a loud undertaking in a forest where every sound could attract bandits. That only left a possibility that Naoko had found a secret stash of trees inside the village limits that nobody knew about. But no matter how much the family searched for it, it proved elusive to find.

It did not add up with the story of Naoko’s death. Which meant that Akira would have spent time investigating it. It did not seem his interviews with the Kobayashi family had gotten him anywhere though. They described Akira as frustrated and none of their answers ever seemed to satisfy him. It would be more efficient to find his real mission notes than to redo a month’s worth of legwork.

Naruto was the one who spent most time away from the others. He overheard some deals being brokered and a lot of dissatisfaction about the Konoha ninja who had come to their village. The way they told it, the ninja had invaded the village to steal their babies.

The only clue they had was the bar in the brick district. Several family members mentioned it, which meant Akira must have heard about it as well. Obviously, he would have checked it out. Which meant Team 7 would go as well.

~*~

The brick district was easy to find. In a city made of wood, these were the only buildings constructed out of stone. Large factories and storage spaces, with big metal chimneys on top of some of them. Maybe they had been used for industry once when the town still imported raw resources, but most of the factories were silent and dead.

The abandoned buildings had been repurposed in a variety of ways. Some had been carved into different structures, keeping the stone skeleton but with a new wooden skin. Others looked abandoned and their function could only be ascertained by observing the various visitors.

It took a while to find the different bars and figure out which one might have been visited by Naoko, even when they regularly split up to hurry the search. They had been given limited directions, but enough that most of them could be eliminated as possibilities as it became later in the afternoon.

Eventually, they narrowed it down to two bars. They would have to enter them to find out more.

“The red rooster?” Naruto asked. “What kind of name is that?”

“A strange one.” Kakashi said. “The world’s filled with those.”

Sakura sighed. “It’s a nightclub especially friendly to non-heterosexuals, especially men.”

“Why would gay men have a thing with farm animals?”

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. “It’s got a pretty young clientele. Naruto and I will check it out.”

Kakashi nodded. “We’ll take the Cherry Lollipop, then. Should be fun.”

The bar did not advertise its existence, besides a drawing of a male chicken on a doorframe in red ink. Other patrons just seemed to barge in, so eventually Naruto and Sasuke did the same. They made sure to adopt the dress of the other visitors.

It was more warehouse than bar. There were a few crates stacked around the room that were used as tables and seats. On one end of the room were a few large sheets of wood to create a raised platform that could function as a stage. There were even some instruments lying there and a simple wooden background. The whole room seemed hastily put together, like they had only just settled in and were not sure whether they wanted to stay.

Only half a dozen people were in the place, hanging around casually and chatting. They halted their conversations for a moment when they noticed the newcomers, though they tried to be hospitable and pretend they had not. Maybe Naruto and Sasuke would have been fooled by the act if they were not ninja.

A few crates with a board balanced on top functioned as a bar and they took a seat there.

“What’s your poison?” The barkeeper asked. He had an earring in one ear, matching his silver and gold hair.

“Do you have some bottled water?” Naruto asked.

“Aren’t you a cutie. There’s a supermarket a block away if you want anything without alcohol. I won’t mind. But here we only serve sweetened sake.”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a choice.” Sasuke said.

“Ah, but there are many ways to sweeten. The daily special is peach sake. Would you like to try some?”

“Can’t hurt.” Sasuke said. He took the offered shot glass and downed the whole cup in a single swig. He was supposed to be a cool teenager after all. He was supposed to play the part.

A coughing fit kept him from a persuasive performance. He grabbed at a canteen on his hip to wash it away.

The man laughed behind a closed fist. “You should take it a bit slower next time. How did you like it?”

“Good.” Sasuke said between coughs. “Even if it’s strong.”

“And how about you, cutie? You’ll have more fun with a few of these drinks in your stomach.”

“Thanks, but I’m not used to hard liquors.”

“I’m sure there’s some other hard thing I could interest you in.”

Naruto looked blankly at the man and then to Sasuke for help. “Like... foods?” Is there a kitchen here?”

The bartender smiled. “Oh, you’re just adorable. We don’t have a kitchen, but there’s another room here I’d like to show you.”

Naruto looked pleadingly at Sasuke. He had no idea what was going on.

Sasuke sighed, deciding to throw a lifeline. “Don’t hit on my boyfriend. The dobe’s too much of an idiot to understand innuendo.”

Oh god. Naruto had never been hit on. At most, they gawked at his sexy no jutsu. Suddenly the man’s suggestive eyebrows made sense. He supposed he should be thankful for Sasuke saving him. But he was just called an idiot, so he quickly decided there was something more fun he could do.

“Excuse my boyfriend.” Naruto grinned, scooting a little closer to his teammate. “He can be a little possessive.”

“Dobe, what are you doing?”

“Lighten up, teme. It’s a friendly place, we can be friendly. Besides, I’m sure there’s room for two people on that tour to your special room, isn’t there, bartender-san?”

Sasuke was actually blushing a little. Score.

No, wait. He was seething. And smiling for some reason. “You’re right. We should have fun. Barkeep, two more drinks please.”

Naruto looked at the strong drink served in front of him. He had not actually had alcohol ever. Sasuke was looking at him expectedly, daring him to down it like the Uchiha had. Screw the bastard. Naruto sipped it carefully instead. It tasted pretty good, even if it fell heavily in his stomach. “Do you make these yourself?”

“I mix them up, but I leave the actual creation to the experts. We have some excellent sake brewers in town. They do masterful work.”

“Have you worked here for long?”

“Not here, specifically. We never know when we are forced to relocate. We don’t have any kind of permit to be here.” He said. “The local government won’t allow us to become a legitimate business. Afraid of the message it might send. So we set up wherever we can.”

“That sounds rough. Why keep doing it?”

“I came out to my parents when I was thirteen. They refused to hear it. When I was fifteen, I took a boyfriend home. They told me that I was not to act on my inclinations as long as I lived under their roof. Obviously, I took my things and left that very day. The people here? They’re my family. I don’t care how much they try to tear us apart. I’m going to make sure there is a place where we can just hang out and be ourselves. How about you guys. Are you new in town?”

“Passing through.” Sasuke said. “Not sure how long we’re staying.”

“Well, it was nice of you to visit our little establishment here. Is it anything like what you’re used to back home?”

“I’m not sure we have anything quite like this.” Naruto said. Gay people did not exist in Konoha.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “You just don’t know where to look, dobe. Most of the bars are hidden in plain sight. There is a popular one behind the book shop on the main street, next to the smith.”

“Doesn’t the shopkeeper get in trouble?”

“It’s tolerated, as long as they continue being subtle about it.”

“We never had that.” The bartended said. “I mean, sixty years ago we had two gay men throwing themselves off a cliff to protest the village’s bigotry, and they still haven’t learned the lesson.”

“Wait. The lovers of Lover’s Rock? We heard there was a girl involved.”

“Lies and slander. No, they were two of ours. The real story is a lot more interesting.”

“Then why don’t you educate us?” Sasuke asked.

“Buy another round, and I’ll talk your pretty ears off.”

“Don’t do that.” Naruto said, digging into his purse for the money. “Keep those ears firmly attached to my boyfriend where I can nibble on them later, thank you very much.” He shot Sasuke a teasing glance and got giddy when he forced Sasuke to act flattered. The Uchiha chose this cover. It was really all his fault Naruto was acting this way.

“It all started when an orphan boy and a clan heir were put on the same creative team.” The bartender said. “The orphan was an entertainer and our village is good at scouting out talent. He landed a job at the theatre. He needed a set to perform on, and the theatre assigned this young star their very best. Not just any carpenter from the most prestigious Kobayashi family, but the very heir to their main branch.

“It’s said they’d have massive fights. The carpenter was usually very collected, but the orphan had ways of getting under his skin. In their worst argument, the orphan accidentally destroyed part of the set the carpenter had worked on for weeks. The orphan went outside of the village to gather the exact same kind of wood. But he had no idea what he was doing. The carpenter had to come save him. And all alone in the woods, they had their first kiss.”

“That’s so sweet.” Naruto said.

“It only went on from there. The arguments lost their edge and they spent all the time they could together. But it wasn’t to last. The carpenter’s family insisted he marry a girl to continue the family name. He was pressured into breaking up with the orphan. The carpenter listened eventually. The orphan told him they could run away. He would wait for him at the top of the cliffs. When the carpenter did not show up, the orphan was devastated and decided to take his own life.”

“But they said there were two deaths, didn’t they?”

“We think the carpenter regretted his choice and went to the orphan boy to run away with him. When he found the love of his life had committed suicide, caused by his own betrayal, it was more than he could bear.”

“Wait. You _think_ that’s what happened?”

“Ah, you’ve caught me.” The bartender smiled. “Bit of artistic licence. We can be pretty sure the two were romantically involved. It was an open secret at the time. And we know the Kobayashi family played a big part in covering that part up. I’m afraid neither of the boys are around anymore to ask them directly.”

Naruto looked down at his empty glass. He put down another few coins to get it refilled. “It’s a good story. But I don’t understand why the carpenter would break up with the orphan boy.”

“It’s hard when your family pressures you.” Sasuke said. “If you are raised from birth to believe clan comes before everything else, then it’s hard to refuse when the clan asks something of you.”

“It sounds silly to me.” Naruto said. “If you love someone, really love someone, you won’t let them go no matter what.”

Sasuke thought for a moment. “You said this was sixty years ago? That was just a little before Konoha was founded.”

“Thereabouts, yeah.” The barkeeper said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the carpenter was intending to run off to Konoha together with the orphan. They say the Kobayashi knew their way around chakra back in the day. No doubt a clan heir would have been particularly strong. Konoha would have been the lesser of two evils.”

“You don’t think Konoha would have been a proper escape?”

“They never would have reached that ocean. If you hear what those ninja do, what Konoha makes those ninja do, maybe the carpenter was better off choosing the coffin.”

Naruto could not hide the wince that comment caused.

The barkeeper shook his head. “I’m sorry, shouldn’t have said that. I’m a bit nervous about the ninja in the village.”

“There are ninja here?” Naruto asked. He nursed his drink a little closer.

“The stories are all over town. I’m surprised you’ve missed them. Apparently, they are starting their tests tomorrow. They start with the youngest and work their way up from there. It’s like they’re trying to make it hurt the most. Either way, if they find one of your loved ones has it, you’ll never see them again.”

“We’ve been a little busy.” Sasuke said. “We were actually hoping to run into a trader. He recommended this place to us in a letter he sent.”

The man was taken aback. “You knew Tori?”

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. That was Akira’s cover name. They were definitely in the right place. “Yeah. Do you know if he’s coming tonight?”

“I’m afraid Tori passed away a few days ago.”

Naruto gasped. “What happened?”

“I don’t know much. Just that his body was found at the bottom of Lover’s Rock.”

“Did he kill himself?”

“So they say.” The man rubbed at his arm. “He didn’t seem too depressed when he came here. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you. We were supposed to meet up with him so he could give us something. Do you know where he was staying?”

“I…” The barkeeper sighed. He still looked uncomfortable. “Excuse me for a moment.” He went through a door behind him, disappearing.

What was that about?

A boy walked up to them. “Are you two causing trouble?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Sasuke said. “We were just having a friendly chat.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Roki get upset like that before. What were you talking with him about?”

“I’m not sure we should say.” Sasuke said. “Why don’t you ask him?”

That drew out a laugh. “And expect Roki to be honest about his feelings? Fat chance. I love the man like a brother, but he has some serious issues.”

“And you are?”

“I’m Fu.” He gave a little salute. “Nice to meet you two love birds. How long are you staying?”

“Just a few days. We were planning on meeting up with our friend Tori, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

“Real shame what happened. He was a nice guy. Couldn’t hold his drinks for shit, though.”

“He come here often?”

“All the time.” Fu said. ”He was negotiating some deals with stuffy old men, so he needed a place to relax.”

Sasuke gave Naruto a look. “So he came here to wash his troubles away with sake.”

Naruto was halfway through a drink, which he decided to put to the side. There were harder ways to get poisoned than by a drink mixed with enough sweets to disguise various tastes of poison, served by a waiter eager to compliment you.

“I guess all the troubles got to him in the end, though. It’s kinda fitting I guess. The man was pretty obsessed with the cliff he ended up throwing himself off of. He was always asking about the other suicide victims.”

“Why are you calling them victims?”

“People don’t take their own lives in isolation.” Fu said. “The culture in this village is toxic. You can’t tell large portions of the population that they’re worthless and then expect them to be unaffected. You can’t treat them wrongly and keep spreading hate, without causing ripples. Some people are especially vulnerable to these things. But it’s an epidemic here. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“It does sound strange.” Sasuke said. “Do you think somebody’s responsible for it?”

“Funny you should ask. Your buddy Tori was wondering whether it would be safe to trade with this village and he had his doubts. Foul play was one of his favourite theories to explain the suicides. He did not seem to find much concrete evidence for it though. Just stories from the families who refused to believe their bad behaviour caused someone to be miserable. Let’s just say there is a reason a lot of the victims visited this place and it wasn’t because they were so happy in their own homes.”

“Wait, a lot of them came here?” Naruto asked.

“Well, I’m also counting the ones where they tried to cover up the suicide.” Fu shrugged. “When we poor bastards die, we are left to be found. The richer families don’t want to admit their faults and try to cover up. You hear about these kids dying from mysterious illnesses out of nowhere. They try to fool us all, but they can’t fool good old Fu.”

“So the problem might be bigger than it first appears.”

“And that’s pretty worrisome when the problem is people taking their own lives, wouldn’t you say?”

“Do you know if Tori was onto something?”

“He didn’t share everything with us, but he seemed to have found some leads on the most recent suicide. A poor boy called Naoko from the Kobayashi family and also one of ours. You always knew there was going to be a party if Naoko showed up. And he’d leave each night with a different guy. His death came out of nowhere.”

“What did Tori find?”

“Well, Naoko was known to disappear for days on end. Tori thought he was involved in some shady business. Last I heard, he went to talk with a girl who used to hang around here. Junko, she was called. Not sure where she’s gone. I haven’t seen her around since Naoko died.”

“What do you know about her?”

“Not much. She was a quiet girl, who mostly kept to herself. I could ask around and see if anyone knows anything.”

“That would be nice of you.” Naruto said. “I wonder if Roki’s alright. He’s been gone for a while now.”

“Missing me already?” The man seemed as carefree as he had when they had walked in. “Wouldn’t want your boyfriend to get jealous.”

“I like him jealous.” Naruto said. “He makes the cutest sounds.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “We should probably be heading out.”

“Actually, there is something you should see first.” Roki motioned for them to come along. The room behind the bar was mostly storage. A few more doors let to different rooms. All the way in the back, Roki showed them a pretty gloomy looking room. Private and with a lock to keep out unwanted guests. “This is where Tori stayed. If he was supposed to give you something, it would be in here.”

“I thought you didn’t know him that well?”

“I didn’t want you thinking I had anything to do with his death. But if you were supposed to get something from him, it’s not my place to stand in the way. I was going to send the rest of his things to his family. You can spare me the postage and take it back yourselves.”

“I don’t understand…” Naruto said. “Why was he staying here?”

“Tori worked hard and he liked to relax here. He made a lot of friends among my patrons, actually. A few days before his death, he said he felt unsafe in the inn. Basically, he was a cute guy who needed a safe place to stay. I wasn’t about to refuse that.” Roki said.

The room was spartan. There was a bed with a backpack next to it. There were just clothes in there and some toiletries. A single nightstand was the only other feature of the room. Stacks of paper with coded messages took up most of the space. There was a small bag of money hidden in the back.

Naruto made a big gesture of taking out the papers, so he could slip the money into his pocket unseen. “It seems Tori was pretty paranoid. I’m sure it’s between here somewhere though. You sure it’s okay we take this?”

“Go ahead. I was putting it off. You know… it’s bad luck to touch a dead man’s belongings too soon. I was going to wait until the funeral. Do you want his clothes as well?”

“We’ll take them back to his family.” Sasuke said. “Let them decide what to do with it.”

“I’m glad.” Roki said. “Then again, this was not the fun I had in mind when I talked about going into a bedroom together. If that was all?”

Naruto was flipping through the pages for anything remarkable, when a sudden crash of memories made him drop the papers. Damn those clones for their timing.

~*~

They had been training in the inn’s garden. Nothing too fancy. Kakashi just thought they should look a little intimidating when they were retrieved. It was also a good exercise in mimicking his teammates.

Sasuke fought with a lot of finesse, which was hard for Naruto to copy. He ended up slowing down considerably to get everything right on first attempts, almost overthinking all the actions. He had no idea how the bastard made it all look so effortless.

Sakura fought with a quiet determination, completely focused on what she was doing. He found it easiest to pretend to be her when he forced himself to be quiet when moving. He kept insulting the target mentally, to build up the needed rage that was always simmering just below the surface.

Their welcoming party had looked posh and impossible. It was led by a middle-aged man, balding and with a moustache. “My name is Toyota Misao. So sorry to keep you waiting.” He did not sound sorry at all.

“That’s okay. We have ways to pass the time.” Kakashi said.

A woman huffed. “I guess if you still need to practice, we do not have much to worry about it.”

“Even the bests knives should be kept sharp.” Kakashi said. “It’s the difference between a clean kill, and a painful one.”

That shut them up.

“Can we go test people yet?” Fake Sakura asked. She was supposed to be eager to proof herself, but she was giving off a bit too much of Naruto’s enthusiasm to try something new. He would make a note of that for the next time he had to be Sakura.

“First, you will come with us.” Misao said. “There is much to discuss.”

Naruto had assumed he was exaggerating. He had followed obediently along with Kakashi and his clones as they made their way to the city hall building. The older man had started with a boring tour of the building, before locating them in a large room for lunch. Many people were introduced, each praised in a monotone description of why they were essential for the functioning of the town. They themselves gave speeches on how honoured they were to work with Shinobi from Konohagakure.

It was a lot of grandstanding nonsense, as far as Naruto was concerned.

After lunch, they were finally able to talk business.

“We can just go around town ourselves.” Kakashi said. “No need for anything so formal.”

“Of course there is.” Misao seemed appalled. “We do not want to risk your Hokage calling the test into question and demanding it all be redone before a year has passed. Especially after your earlier insinuations.”

“Our Hokage is too honourable for that.”

“I did not want to imply anything about your Hokage’s worth, ninja-san. But governments are complicated beasts and it just takes one person sowing doubt. Last time Konoha ninja were here, one of my own villagers protested. A little girl just fourteen years old, who had been skipped over. There was little we could do about it, but it took weeks to settle it. No, we will do it by the book.”

And what a book it was. A secretary brought it in. Bound in green leather and thicker than Naruto’s wrist. Misao read from it aloud, summarising the history of the deal and reiterating the terms. He warned about all the possible risks of a wrong testing year.

Then finally they got to decision making.

“The location of the tests is a highly contested issue.”

“Maa, we will be fine anywhere.” Kakashi tried.

“You say that, but there are numerous factors to consider.” Misao said. He went on and on, describing twenty possible venues with all the pros and cons.

To think Naruto had been worried it might be difficult to stall them.

They went on to discuss the criteria for testing. It was mandatory for anyone between the ages of four and eight to be tested. Anyone under the age of twenty-one had to explicitly state whether they wanted to be tested. Anyone else had to be given the chance and opportunity to be tested.

There were exceptions for children who were sick enough to be bedridden. Exceptions to that rule for children who had been sick for no more than three days and were expected to be back on their feet within the week.

“Why can’t we just test the whole town?” Kakashi asked.

Misao scoffed. “How many weeks are you intending on staying?”

The city had a comprehensive census and their clerks had prepared figures to calculate population sizes for the different categories together with expected turnout. That allowed them to come up with an estimate how long it would take them to test the entire village. Testing the whole town would take them three weeks and they had the Math to prove it. Even Kakashi’s clone had to admit that was overdoing things and would be too cruel to inflict upon the original.

They were asked to okay a small team of government workers who would go through town. They would inform everyone on where team 7 was and how they could be tested. They would make sure they knew their rights. They would also get confirmations from the people between eight and twenty-one when they chose not to get tested.

A portion of the team would handle registration, so that the ninja could fully focus on the tests. They had several procedures in place so that they could easily be audited by the ninja when they wished to do so.

“Finally, there is the matter of lodgings and other activities.”

“Ah.” Kakashi said. “No need for a discussion. We will be staying at the inn for our stay.”

“We do not wish to burden your purses. We have perfectly good rooms available here in the city hall where we can guarantee your safety. You never know what happens in the middle of a village as big as this one.”

So, that meant they would be guarded and watched if they stayed here. Naruto had a feeling they were more interested in protecting the village from them, rather than have any interest in Team 7’s well-being.

“We don’t mind the costs. We enjoyed our stay there and we are eager to repeat the experience.”

“But if you look at the safety concerns…”

“We can handle ourselves.” Kakashi said simply. “We will stay at the inn.”

The man seemed ready to protest more, when there was a knock on the door.

“Excuse me for being late.”

“Not at all, Watanabe-hime. Please, come in and join us.”

The woman looked just a little over thirty years old. Her long black hair was done up with an assortment of pins and her blue-gray kimono seemed very sophisticated. White flowers were painted on the garment, which matched a striking red and white patterned obi.

“We were just discussing where the ninja would stay during their visit. They apparently wish to extend their stay at the onsen.”

“Which is how the discussion ended.” Kakashi said.

“There’s the matter of your security, shinobi-san. We can’t just move our guards to the inn and leave holes in other vulnerable locations.”

“Now, I’m sure there is some agreement to be reached. We all want this to be over as soon as possible, do we not?” The woman stroked her chin. “Aren’t the guards training grounds close to the inn? Why don’t you let them train in the inn’s courtyard during the ninja’s visit?”

“That much training is not in the budget, though. And the onsen will want compensation too.”

“A smart man like you has some extra reserved I’m sure. Isn’t it worth it to invest in the quality of our troops and to support a local business?”

“Of course, princess. I’ll ask my clerics to look into it.” The man smiled.

“And I’m sure it’s agreeable to our ninja friends.” The woman said. “They proved the courtyard is perfect for training, after all.”

“For ninja, at least.” Kakashi said. “Fast and lethal movements. I sure hope training together with the troops doesn’t end in tragedy for them.”

“Ah, we share that hope.” She said, dismissing the threat. “So easy for an arrow to misfire or a spear to be thrown off course. Obviously with such dangerous people around, you have to find careful ways to be in the same area without hurting each other. So I do hope it won’t end badly. Especially since honourable ninja as yourselves are more trained in avoiding innocent bystanders than our humble guardsmen are trained to avoid ninja.”

Kakashi smiled. “As you said, we are shared in our hopeful optimism.”

“It’s so nice to meet the four of you, I must say. We don’t often get the chance to entertain, let alone entertain ninja. I know not everyone shares the opinion with me, but it’s one of my favourite times of year. And now Konoha has sent a whole team, with three of you so young. What are your names?”

“I’m Sakura, madam.” Fake Sakura said.

“Uchiha Sasuke.”

“And I’m Naruto.”

“Pretty names. I’m Watanabe Kimiko. I run the local theatre. If you get a chance, you should come watch a show.”

“The innkeeper told me the same thing.” Naruto said. “She actually recommended one. About a shark and a crane.”

“Ah, that’s quite the classic and one of my favourite children’s stories. It’s not as often performed as it should be, in my opinion. I’ll prepare a special showing tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, there’s no need for that.” Kakashi said. “We should start testing tomorrow.”

Kimiko gave Misao a glance. The man who was supposedly leading the meeting started sputtering and going over his notes.

“A-actually, we won’t have everything ready until the afternoon. You can watch the play in the morning without any trouble.”

“What grand luck.” The woman said. “I’ll be expecting you.”

“How can you even put together a show in a single day?” Sasuke asked.

The woman seemed amused. “Working under impossible deadlines is just par for the course when you work in the theatre. I’ll admit that in this case we have it a little easier. Like I mentioned before, it’s a classic piece. My actors already know the lines and there are multiple constructed sets to choose from. It won’t be as polished as I would like, but you cannot perform if you are afraid of imperfection.”

“We appreciate the effort.” Sakura said.

“Finally, getting back to why we are here, there is the matter of curfew.” Misao said.

“Are you worried about us sneaking off?” Kakashi asked. “You know we’d never do anything like that.”

“It’s a more general curfew.” Misao said. “We know ninja can be targets of other hidden villages. During your stay we will prohibit any travel outside after dark.”

“For all of your citizens as well? Those poor people.” Kakashi said. “We wouldn’t want to be such an inconvenience.”

“And yet here we are.” An aide in the room said, looking at the team of ninja.

Several of the actual politicians looked offended and ready to respond in anger

“We’re glad to make the sacrifice.” The princess said before the situation could escalate. “It’s for our own peace of mind as well. The guards will stop all civilians they see and escort them back to their place of residence. If they can’t tell us where they live, well, it’s one of the ways we can weed out hostile ninja from our own.”

“It seems a bit extreme.” Naruto said.

“We’re just being careful. There are so many stories going around about ninja, it’s hard to know which ones to believe and which ones not to. Some say that ninja can turn incorporeal and switch between dimensions.”

“That sounds more like magic than ninjutsu.” Kakashi noted.

“It’s hard to tell as an outsider, ninja-san.” She said. “You have such fantastical abilities like making clones and changing your appearance. It’s hard to wrap your head around it, really. I don’t even know if I’m actually talking to four ninja right now, or just two who have multiplied.”

Naruto tried not to sweat or show any reaction.

“You get used to such things as a ninja. Perhaps we should test your chakra skills. It’s never too late to find out you have the aptitude.”

“A nice offer, but it is in fact too late for me. I’m afraid I don’t have much longer to live. I suffer from the same hereditary illness that takes many in my family before it is their time.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I’ve known it since I was a child. It kept me weak and unable to go outside. The disease is worst during childhood, while the body is still growing. Now that I’m an adult, I can manage the pain with medicines. And I channel it all into my work.”

“Watanabe-hime is a spectacular playwright. It is unbelievable how she can manipulate words to create masterpieces.”

“You flatter me. My mother taught me everything I know. She was an amazing woman.”

“You have surpassed her, by far.”

“As I’m sure my daughter will surpass me.” She said. “Was there anything left to discuss? Otherwise I have some preparations to make.”

“Nothing more substantial than final details. We will work it out and then escort these ninja back to their lodgings.”

“Very well. Actually, I would like to ask these kind ninja one favour now that they are here. Just one of them would suffice.” She went over the four of them, before pointing at Naruto. “Could you be so kind as to help me out? It’ll only take a moment.”

Naruto looked at his teammates. Sasuke and Sakura had no idea what to do. They were just copies of Naruto, after all. Kakashi seemed equally confused, though he quickly made a small hand signal ordering Naruto to follow along and see what she wanted.

The woman walked efficiently, Naruto noted, as they walked through the corridor together. There were no wasted motions. The steps were silent too. He was not used to that around civilians.

“I much appreciate the help.” She said, as they reached a small office. “The box over there needs to be carried to my cart.”

It was a small wooden crate, about a feet in all directions. It looked normal enough.

“And you needed a ninja for that?”

She chuckled. “Just try it.”

Naruto found his grip and then pulled it up. He grunted as it was lifted off the ground. It took chakra-enhanced strength to carry it. “What the hell is in this?”

“Inks.” She said. “Specially imported from Wind country. I refuse to write with anything of lesser quality.”

“That sounds fancy.” Naruto said. He made sure he held it properly, before following Kimiko to her vehicle.

“Have you ever been to a theatre, Naruto?”

“Not very often, no.”

“I used to imagine the theatre as a different realm of existence. People come there and leave their troubles behind. They don’t like to think about all the minutia that goes into creating a production. Before we can put on our plays, the words have to be written, read, understood and rehearsed. Then when the curtains rise, everything is orderly and in its place. I like it when people behave the way they should.”

“But people rarely do.” Naruto said.

“Very true.” She said. “People have a way of breaking the rules. And productions never end up the way you expect them to. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to run across the backstage of the podium, as silent as I could be, to fix a little problem. I remember my big debut. I had made the lines too difficult and one of the actors fumbled his words in the opening act. He was supposed to say his mother had naught but a cat, but instead he said his mother was a naughty cat. It drew a laugh and I had to rewrite her part on the fly. It was not the play I had intended, for her poverty tied into the central theme, but it was an enjoyable experience for the audience.”

“It’s impressive you did that so quickly.”

“I do what needs to be done. I consider myself a practical woman. If there is a heavy box to be lifted and a ninja nearby, I’m not above my pride to ask them for help. I might be a shark, but it’s the shark that knows its limits. And, if you’ll allow me to be blunt, when I see four ninja who want to start a war, I strike up a conversation.”

“We’re not…”

“I grew up around actors. You have some talent, but not enough practice to pretend to be three separate people. I know four distinct ninja entered this village. So at least two of you are wandering around this village, going directly against the Shigandan-Konoha treaty.”

Naruto’s heart started beating faster, pounding against in his chest. What the hell was he supposed to say against this?

“I don’t know what game Konoha is playing, but the rules exist for a reason. I assume you won’t tell me what the real Sakura and Sasuke are doing?”

Naruto shook his head.

“Look, I know that this must be a strange place for you. I know Konoha does not like it when a village so close to them is a dark spot in their data. I can understand the temptation and I will not blame you for being curious. I do wish to impart the importance of the treaty. Do you know how it was reached?”

“The records in Konoha are classified, but the innkeeper said you put on a play for them.”

She halted a little, before continuing. “I’m surprised you have heard so much already. That is indeed what the village had done. It was my grandmother who had written it. The story was about a dragon that had made a mountain its home. It told all the nearby villagers to bring it their children so that it could eat them.”

Naruto did not need to have seen a lot of plays to understand that metaphor. “And that persuaded the Konoha diplomats?”

“It was a joint effort. We had negotiators speak to them in meeting rooms to make them know our position, while my grandmother made sure they understood it. Do you know why it is important you know this history?”

Naruto shook his head.

“As the weeks went by, as we learned more and more about Konoha itself, my grandmother kept tweaking the play. By the end, it had become a political nightmare. If wildly spread across the Fire Nation, it will spark a revolution against the Village Hidden in the Leaf. That was true then as it is now. Social structures are never as secure as those on top like to pretend they are.”

“I can’t believe that would work though.” Naruto said. “How would you even spread the play fast enough?”

“Ninja aren’t the only people who can be crafty. We have employed a dead man’s switch. The script has already been distributed to most towns in the Fire nation. If our village were ever to disappear, they would rehearse and perform. And that would be rebellion.”

“How can you be so sure?” Naruto asked. “You’re not a witch. You can’t magically make people hate Konoha.”

“Ah, yes. Words can be powerful, but they’re not magic. These particular words, however, address feelings that already exist. They speak to a general sense of oppression. Things that people always knew were wrong, but could not quite articulate. They make those smoky demons take form and then arm them with silver tongues. There are people dying of thirst while you can make water out of thin air. There are people breaking their backs to carry crates around, while a ninja would not even break a sweat. And what do these demi-gods use their powers for? To fight each other and to hell with all the common people that stands between ninja and their goals.”

Naruto had trouble imagining it, but not as much trouble as he had before. He thought of old man Teuchi, slaving away day after day to make Ramen, while he barely made the salary of a genin. He wondered how he would react when the unfairness of it all was rubbed into his face through manipulative prose.

“Konoha would be forced to choose between committing genocide or letting itself be disbanded by the angry mobs. The deal was struck to prevent all the pointless bloodshed. We got a reasonable concession. To be left alone. If we are not, Konoha will not be left alone either.”

“I… I understand.”

“Now, you’ve had your fun today. You’ve messed up your lines and I hope it drew a laugh. I will give you a chance to maintain the peace between our villages. All I ask is that you stick to the role you are meant to play.”

“Even if everything you’ve said is true, you realise I’m not the leader of my team.”

“Of course. It would have been more suspicious though if I had asked your sensei for a private word. My fellow villagers are already wary of you and they will not take it as kindly as I did to hear you are breaking the rules. They do not believe in second chances, like I do.”

They reached Kimiko’s cart, where Naruto deposited the crate as she indicated.

“I expect you to warn your teammates, Naruto.” She said. “If they are caught after curfew, it will force our hands.”

“I understand.”

She smiled widely. “It was nice having this little chat with you. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning for the play. Again, an excellent choice.”

And just like that, she was gone. Naruto was in a haze as he returned to Kakashi’s clone and they finished their meeting. It was close to sunset already and it would soon be too late to send out a warning. The first chance he got, he signalled Kakashi to cut the meeting short if he could.

Then again, trying to speed them up was as effective as trying to delay them.

Finally, after another hour of formalities, they were escorted back to the inn. Naruto hurried them into one of their bedrooms to explain what had happened.

“This is worrisome.” Kakashi said. “We must warn our originals.”

“There is only one way to do that.”

“It’s too suspicious if we all dismiss ourselves.” Kakashi said. He opened the sliding door an inch to look at the soldiers sparring with each other in the open courtyard. “Especially with the increased scrutiny. But we can manage if it’s just one of you. The original Naruto can tell the rest of the team then.”

Naruto nodded. It really ought to be enough. There was only one way that plan could fail. But they were in a strange village with dangerous people where a ninja had ended up dead just two days ago. What was the chance his team would be idiotic enough to split up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update on Thursday, November 21st.


	5. Mister Moonlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto bonds with his team and gets a good night's sleep.

Naruto shook his head. “S-sorry. Muscle twitch.” It was always so daunting when his clones popped after long separations. Just a minute ago he had only one recollection of the day, but now he had two. He gave Sasuke a look. “We should go.”

Sasuke helped him pick up the papers he had dropped. “Yeah, we’ll take our leave now.”

“Don’t be strangers now.” Roki said. He helped them get out of the storage room and back to the bar.

“We need to get to Kakashi.” Naruto said. “As fast as possible.”

They were just out of the door, when Naruto noticed a guard that was nearby and heading their way. He pulled Sasuke away from the door into a nearby alley and against a wall.

“What’s that about?” Sasuke asked. He was staring at Naruto, waiting for an explanation.

“They’re enforcing a curfew.”

“So?” Sasuke gave a quick look around the corner to see how much time they had. “He’ll just send us on our way with a warning.”

“No, they’ll escort us home. Which in this case would mean…”

“They find out we don’t have one. They realise we’re ninja and our whole cover is blown. We need to get out of here.”

The alleyway had a dead end. All they could do was head back into the street. “We could climb the walls?”

“Not fast enough. And if they see us while we’re climbing, we’re instantly exposed. Best bet is letting him find us, I think.”

The guard kept getting closer. They heard his footsteps. Naruto tried to think hard and figure out some other way to get out of this. He tried to remember anything he could use about this town and how it worked.

An idea came to mind, but it was horrible.

But then the guard came around the corner and it was the only thing left to try.

Naruto pulled Sasuke’s face close to his own and kissed him. The Uchiha was startled, but followed his teammate’s lead. Sasuke wrapped his arm around Naruto’s waist and pulled them close together. Sasuke’s hand was under Naruto’s shirt, caressing his back.

Sasuke’s fingers felt like fire and Naruto had to remind himself that this was his teammate and not his boyfriend. They were outside and not in a secret room to share secret kisses. He was doing this with a purpose, not because he liked it. He would have pushed the thoughts completely away, but it helped to sell this performance if part of him believed it was real.

Naruto moaned against Sasuke’s mouth and Sasuke used the moment to slip his tongue in. Naruto was surprised, but two could play at that game. He pushed back and explored Sasuke’s mouth with his own tongue. They closed their eyes and kissed as passionately as they could.

“What are you two…” The guard started. “Oh.”

Naruto stopped making out just long enough to give a thoroughly unimpressed expression. He stuck out his middle finger and then continued right on sucking the soul out of the dark-haired ninja he considered a friend.

“Get off the streets at least.” The guard muttered, before moving on.

It took a few seconds to make sure the guard had really moved on, before Sasuke took a big step back. “How the fuck did that work?”

“These people like to pretend gay people don’t exist. It makes them uncomfortable or something.”

“Big gamble, dobe.”

“And even if he had stopped us. Half the gay guys we just met were kicked out of their homes when they came out to their parents. We could have told him we crash in any of the abandoned buildings here and he would have believed us.”

Sasuke considered that. “Smart.”

“You seemed to really get into it though, teme.” Naruto said. “We could have sold it with a lot less enthusiasm too.”

Sasuke’s blush seemed genuine this time. “How the hell was I supposed to know that?” He looked up. “If nobody’s coming, we should head to the roofs now.”

Naruto glanced around the corner out of the alley, before giving the okay to Sasuke. They charged their feet and climbed the wall as quickly as they could without making a sound. From there, they made it to the bar Kakashi and Sakura were exploring.

The two of them were seated at a table with four other people by the window. They seemed to be playing some kind of card game.

“I’ll signal him.” Naruto said. He used a one of their more inconspicuous methods of communicating to tell Kakashi to finish off what he was doing.

Kakashi seemed to start another game instead.

“Seems we’ll be here for a while.” Sasuke whispered. “What happened that you’re so spooked?”

“The lady in charge of the theatre is an intimidating woman. She realised we were breaking the rules, so she made sure we knew how the village had gotten the deal in the first place.”

Naruto told Sasuke as much as he remembered of the encounter. He had to stop the story in several places when people passed by and they were in danger of being overheard. It was not worth the risk.

“I see.” Sasuke said once the story was finished. “This complicates things.”

“Do you think we’ll have to stop the investigation?”

“I doubt it. Kimiko said she could tell you were trying to be three people. She couldn’t tell all three of you were clones.”

Naruto winced. “I tried my best, teme.”

“Which didn’t amount to much.”

“Bastard.”

“No.” Sasuke shook his head. “A civilian woman, easily and with full confidence saw, right through the acting of a ninja of the Hidden Leaf. I wonder if Sakura or I would have fooled her. We’re not that much better at the henge than you are.”

“So we have to make sure there are four of us in public. That leaves only Kakashi and me to continue investigating. Unless the two of you learned the kage bunshin too?”

“We’d be splitting up our chakra too much. We don’t have your reserves.”

“What do you think Kimiko’s deal is?”

“The innkeeper equated her family with royalty.” Sasuke said. “Sick during childhood. Sheltered and isolated. Probably spent most of her childhood reading.”

“Makes sense for a playwright.” Naruto said. “Especially one that people are calling the greatest ever. She really seems to care for the village.”

“Easy when the village likes you.” Sasuke noted. “But there’s something bothering me.”

“What’s that?”

“This town is isolated from the rest of Fire Nation. This isolation affects the lumber industry, which is eager enough for trade that a lone trader from a nearby village is a big deal. A performative business like a theatre would have the most to gain if the isolation ended and the town opened up for visitors. Yet it sounds like she was hoping we would fail to find any chakra-sensitive children.”

“The other people we talked to were worried about us taking their children away. You think she suspects her own daughter is a ninja?”

“Maybe. I’m curious to meet Kimiko tomorrow.”

Naruto nodded. “It’s quite an experience.”

Sasuke made a signal. Another guard walked by along the street. They were silent until he had disappeared around a corner.

“In the bar, you seemed pretty comfortable pretending to be my boyfriend.” Sasuke said. “Did you have to take it that far?”

“No.” Naruto admitted. “But it seemed like the most fun I could have.” He grinned.

“Hn.”

“Awww, come on. It’s not every day that the your most annoying team mate pretends to be in a relationship with you. When we tell Sakura about tonight, she is going to be sick with jealousy.”

“Please don’t tell her.” Sasuke grimaced. “She’ll be insufferable.”

“But telling others is half the fun.” Naruto teased. “Seeing the look on their face when I tell them I suggested a three-way with another guy and you played along.”

“And that I had to kiss you at the end of the night.”

Naruto shook his head. “That was practical and as horrible for me as it must have been for you. I’d like to take that to my grave, thank you very much.”

“Hn.” Sasuke said.

“You weren’t planning on telling other people either, were you?”

“Not planning on it.” Sasuke said. “You can rest assured of that, dobe. My reputation would take a nose-dive.”

“Just because you kissed a guy? I think you’d only get more popular.”

“Any other guy, then perhaps.” Sasuke said.

Naruto rolled his eyes. He was used to the insults and let it roll off him. “Could you imagine the reaction though if the great Sasuke Uchiha came out as gay? I wonder if it would crush your fan club or inflame them. Maybe they’d think they could turn you.”

“The council wouldn’t like it.” Sasuke said. “I’m still expected to continue the Uchiha line.”

“It wouldn’t be fair if they held you to a higher standard. I doubt they’d ever expect anything like that from any other shinobi.” Naruto said.

“No, I don’t supposed they’d care about your sexuality at all. So, when’s your coming out party?”

Naruto gasped. “That… that sounds amazing.”

“What?”

“The best prank ever. Make the biggest deal of it I possibly can. Hire all the musicians to play loud gay anthems, get as many flamboyant clothes made and let nobody in unless they look suitably ridiculous. I wonder if Ichiraku would make pink noodles to cater for the occasion. And I can get male strippers to walk around and make everyone uncomfortable.”

“Oh god.”

“And then when everyone is at their most shocked, and every stuffy old politician is complaining and trying to shut the party down, it would be time for the finale.”

“Please don’t tell me you’d find some way to make all the chunin jackets display interwoven gender symbols or something.”

“Good idea, points for creativity, but no. Paint bombs all along the Hokage monument. I’ll have my clones drop them and colour the whole mountain side in rainbow colours. They’ll be talking about the gay monster terrorising the town for weeks.” Naruto had the biggest grin on his face.

“Please give me a warning before you do all this.”

“And give you a chance to skip town?”

“No, actually.” Sasuke said. “I have some people to get back at and I’d like them to blame you.”

“I don’t mind. You’ll only add to the legend. In fact, I think there are more classmates who would get into it if we explained it to them. Bribed them a little. Maybe some blackmail.”

Sasuke shook his head, smiling. “I doubt many would actually go along with it.”

“No, but listen. We could break Konoha homophobia. We get all the teams to come out as gay together. Everyone in our class, at least. We’ll be the queer generation.”

“There are so many clan heirs our age.” Sasuke smiled. “That would really piss them off.”

Naruto laughed, trying to keep it as quiet as he could. He had been kidding, of course, but a part of him wanted to do it now. It would be stupid and silly. That was his brand.

“Are you actually gay?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Naruto asked.

“I’m just wondering.” Sasuke said. “It’s hard to tell when you make a joke of everything.”

“I… I don’t think so.” Naruto said. “I mean, I have a crush on Sakura.”

“I see.” Sasuke said.

“Why the question?” Naruto thought back to his quip earlier. Sasuke had an answer ready for how Konoha would react to his coming out. Maybe he had thought about it before. “Do you think you’re gay?”

“I don’t know.” Sasuke shrugged.

“Isn’t there anyone you like?”

Sasuke shook his head. “I’m trying to get stronger to fight my brother. Romance isn’t really on my mind.” Sasuke said. “Never quite understood the appeal. But, as annoying as tonight was, I think I understand a little better. So thank you for that.”

Naruto was not sure how to respond to that. “You’re welcome, I guess. But I don’t know how to have a conversation with you if you’re being all honest and vulnerable. It’s kind of freaking me out.”

“I think that’s just because you’re easy to freak out, dobe.”

“Just be less freaky, teme, and I’ll be fine.” Naruto said.

Kakashi still seemed to be in the middle of his game, but he seemed to be wrapping up anyway. He had stood up and was making excuses. Naruto and Sasuke made sure there was nobody around, before sliding down into a nearby alley. As soon as their teammates were in sight, they signalled for them.

“We got quite the lead.” Sakura smiled.

“So did we, but we need to head back immediately.” Naruto said.

They were already moving as Kakashi asked his follow-up question. “Did something happen?”

Naruto explained the best he could while travelling over rooftops. The jounin led them across the city, as quickly and quietly as they could making it back to the inn. The snuck into the room where the clones were waiting.

“Thank god.” Fake Kakashi said. “Took you long enough.”

The clones were replaced with puffs of smoke.

“So what did you guys find out?” Sakura asked.

“Not yet.” Kakashi said. He opened the door out into the hallway and led them to the bar area. “So sorry we’re late.”

“It’s okay.” Chiharu said. “I’ll make the final preparations now.”

She started plating everything and putting it out.

“Naruto mentioned that you have a collection of medicinal herbs in your kitchen.” Sakura said.

“I find it important to keep some things on hand. You never know what you might need.”

“Do you think I could borrow some things, later tonight? I’d like to make something to help Naruto sleep better.”

“No problem at all.”

Team 7 made small talk while their dinner was prepared. There were more guards at the inn now, which meant they had to keep up appearances. It was too risky to talk about their investigation. It made the waiting a lot harder.

They were all uneasy as they ate. The innkeeper did enough of the talking and Kakashi prompted her further when it was needed. The guards were seated next to them and seemed to be listening intently. They must have realised the ninja would realise they were eavesdropping. Which meant the whole point was to make them uncomfortable.

After dinner, they retreated into one of the bedrooms. Kakashi made sure they were not being listened into. “It seems our hands are tied.” He noted. “We will use tomorrow to observe and figure out how much we can get away with.”

“Did you have any idea this village has such a measure in place?” Sakura asked. “Inciting revolution against Konoha… what a drastic course of action.”

“None. The Hokage must know about it, but I doubt many others.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if they had told us?”

“They must think it’s better to contain the knowledge. It would take just one rogue ninja finding a copy of the play, which there are apparently many of, to create mayhem.”

“Do you really think the play’s as bad as Watanabe-san claimed?” Naruto asked.

“It’s possible she was exaggerating. But it’s hard to tell without having seen it. It was apparently enough to convince the Konoha diplomats into making the treaty. Now, what did you find?”

“Akira visited the Red Rooster a lot.” Naruto said. “It was apparently where he was spending the nights as well. We were allowed to take his things with us.” He handed over everything they had found, including the money.

“These are his mission notes.” Kakashi said, going over the documents. “Some of it is legible, but it seems to be all over the place.”

“I dropped them.” Naruto said. “I got the Kage Bunshin memories while holding them.”

Kakashi sighed. “There should be a page numbering somewhere. It was good work finding this. Together with the notes on his body, it should paint a pretty comprehensive picture of what happened.”

“Akira visited our place too.” Sakura said. “He gambled money away, but only in small quantities. We’re pretty sure it was deliberate and that he meant to loosen some tongues.”

“We were lucky they thought we were a cute couple.” Kakashi said. “We were seated right away with the people that Akira needed to work hard to see on his own. They mentioned Naoko and how his death had been a big blow to them. He had gotten his hands on some large sums of money which he was spending there. He always had the same woman on his arm, encouraging him.”

“What was Naoko doing there with a woman?” Naruto asked. “The guys at the Red Rooster said he hooked up with men. A different one after every party.”

“Maybe he was trying to start anew.” Sasuke said. “Leave his days of partying behind and settle down with someone.”

“Are you saying that being gay was just a phase for him?” Naruto asked. “That sounds a little insensitive. A lot, actually.”

“A lot of clan kids have to put their happiness aside as they grow older.” Sasuke said.

“Don’t be daft, you two.” Sakura interrupted. “It sounds like he was bisexual. Obviously the guys at the gay bar would only see him hooking up with guys.”

“Wait. Do you know the woman’s name who was with him?”

“Junko, I believe. Why?”

“She used to go to the Red Rooster too. She stopped going after Naoko died.”

“That wouldn’t have escaped Akira’s attention.” Kakashi said. “She would know more about Naoko’s death, and if Akira was looking into her, then she might also have been involved in his death.”

Sasuke took out his flask. “Sakura, I need you to run some tests on this.”

“What is it?”

“Sake from the gay bar. They said Akira was drinking it.”

“So you think it might be poisoned?”

“It can’t hurt to check it out.”

Sakura nodded. “It’s more probable Akira’s drinks specifically were messed with, but it’s not like we can test for that. Let’s at least rule this out.”

Kakashi laid out the notes in front of him. “I’ll work on these. You guys get some rest.”

Naruto and Sasuke went into their room, getting ready to go to bed. Sakura knocked on the door a little later.

“It was useful to see the kitchen.” Sakura said. “Chiharu has quite the collection. At least a dozen different ways to influence someone mentally.”

“You think she’s responsible?”

“Akira spent some time here. I wouldn’t rule it out.”

“Maybe it’s better if you don’t make me a sedative from her collection then.”

“I’m not an amateur, Naruto.” She smiled. “Naruto, I made the medicine to help you sleep with my own supllies. It won’t calm the dreams completely though. I’m hoping it at least keeps you from waking up early.”

“I’m really grateful for this.”

“You’re on our team, Naruto. You know I’d help you with anything.”

“About that…” Naruto said. Sasuke had been pushing him to ask for help more and it had worked so far. “You know the shunshin I’ve been trying to work on?”

“Yeah, you still haven’t figured it out, have you? You should really just read the book I gave you instead of putting it aside in favour of manga.”

“About that...” Naruto said. He reached into his backpack and slowly pulled it out. He had to take a few moments to gather his courage, before he opened it to the page he had gotten to. His heart was beating hard in his chest and it felt like he was getting sweatier. No matter how much Sasuke and Sakura tried to reassure him, his instinct was to see this admission ending with a lot of mockery and heartbreak.

He opened it to the page he had gotten to. “I’ve been trying to read it. But I have trouble understanding it.”

“That’s not so unusual. These kinds of books aren’t too clear. It starts making sense the fourth or fifth time you go through it. How many times have you read it?”

Naruto grit his teeth. _I have to read it multiple times?_ “And that helps for you?”

“It’s how I get through it. But I suppose I could try to make it go a little faster. You know what, why don’t I grab my own book and we’ll read together. You can ask me questions when you don’t understand.”

“That’d be really nice of you, Sakura-chan.”

They spent the next hour going through it together. Sasuke sat nearby, cleaning and arranging his equipment. He even offered some advice from time to time. The book was more of a starting point as the three of them discussed chakra in a much more grounded way. It was more fun than Naruto had ever thought studying could be.

“Naruto, can I ask you something?” Sakura asked. She pointed at a character in the book. “What does this kanji say?”

Naruto looked at it for a few seconds, before answering. “That one’s harmony. Why?”

“Does it take you this long to read all the kanji?”

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. “It’s not that I don’t know them. It’s just hard to keep them apart without the furigana to help me.”

“I mean, I guess they’re a little complicated. But there’s nothing we didn’t go through in the Academy.”

“Which is where I learned them.” Naruto said. “I’ll try to remember them better.”

“I don’t think that’ll help much.” Sakura said.

Naruto winced. This was what he had been afraid of. “I know I can do it, Sakura-chan.”

“You can’t though.” Sakura said. “This isn’t the kind of thing where you can become better by trying harder. It takes a lot of practice. I shouldn’t have given you this book.”

“I’ll give it back to you then.” Naruto said, fighting back tears. Stupid, stupid Naruto. He had been getting too comfortable. He had screwed up now. He just needed to try to salvage as much of the situation as he could. “Thanks for all the help so far. I guess I’ll just have to keep trying the jutsu without the theory, huh? Put that stupid stubbornness to some good use.”

Sakura looked over at him. She gasped when she realised how Naruto had taken her words. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just thinking… when I was six and we were learning kanji, my mom and dad would practice with me every day. She would draw kanji on my bento and I would be encouraged to say the word aloud before eating. I wonder if I’d gotten as far as you’ve gotten if I didn’t have their help and it seems unlikely.”

“My parents helped me too.” Sasuke said. “My mom would take me on her lap and read stories to me. My dad would leave ninja documentation around the house. I’m pretty sure it was deliberate because it was never anything inappropriate and he only remembered to retrieve it when I was done reading. He must have known I’d be too curious to resist.”

“I really tried my best to practice.” Naruto said.

“I know.” Sakura said. “But it’s hard to do by yourself. When I said I should not have given you this book, I meant I should have given you a simpler one. It won’t be as much help for the shunshin as this one, but it’s better than a book you can’t get through.”

“But… if this is the better book, shouldn’t I just power through?”

“Naruto, just because it’s the better book for other people, doesn’t mean it’s the best book for you. If you want to get better understanding Kanji, it’s better to do it with books you’ll enjoy. I have a lot of fiction that you’d like, I think. And it’s all designed to slowly familiarise you with different words. That way you can work yourself up to this level more organically.”

“That would be amazing. I can’t tell you how guilty I’ve felt that I couldn’t get through this book.”

“I’m so sorry for making you go through that.” Sakura said. She wrapped her arms around her teammate and gave him a tight hug. “I should have realised sooner that you were struggling.”

“I mean, I could have spoken up about it.”

She chuckled. “I can’t really call myself a ninja if I need everything spelled out to me. But still, if something like this happens again I do expect you to tell me, okay?

Sasuke nodded. “You’re our friend.”

“I’ll try.” Naruto said. He yawned, before rubbing at his eyes.

“We should probably go to bed.”

“I can continue a little longer.” Naruto said. He yawned again. “I’m fine.”

“You’ve been operating on too little sleep for three days straight. We can pick this up tomorrow.”

Naruto wanted to protest more, but a drawn-out yawn kept him from it too long. “Okay. I guess you’re right. Good night, Sakura-chan.”

“Good night, boys.” She picked up her things and went into the other bedroom.

Naruto settled into his futon. Sasuke had cleaned up his things and done the same. The blond ninja made sure to take a good gulp of the medicine Sakura had made. It tasted absolutely foul, but if it helped him get rest, it was worth it.

“Naruto, did you actually dislike kissing me?”

“What?” Naruto found it hard to believe Sasuke had actually asked that question. But the boy was looking at him, clearly expecting an actual answer. “Whenever did I say that?”

“You said it was horrible.”

“Right. If I remember correctly, you then implied it’d ruin your reputation to be associated with me.”

“I was annoyed at you.” Sasuke said. “I didn’t think the kiss was horrible. It was my first kiss, you know. Other than the one you gave me at the Academy graduation.”

“God, don’t remind me of that.”

“It’s still true.”

“I see.” Naruto turned around to look at an opposite wall. He did not want to be looking at Sasuke during this particular conversation. “It wasn’t horrible for me either.”

“Then why did you say it was?”

“I’m feeling weird. You know the dreams? Part of the memories I’m seeing, I think they’re of the orphan and the carpenter. And when I’m dreaming, I don’t feel like myself. I think and know things as the orphan boy knew them. And let me tell you, that kid was head over heels. It feels like I’m kissing that carpenter boy like my life depends on it, proclaiming my love to him like he’s the only other person on this planet.”

“You didn’t mention anything about those kind of dreams.”

“It’s kind of embarrassing.”

Sasuke took a moment to think of it. “Oh god. You said you didn’t see what the people in your dreams looked like, because they looked like Sakura and me.”

Fuck that bastard for realising that. “Yeah.”

Sasuke sighed. He pulled at Naruto’s arm to make him turn back, so he could look him in the eye before taking his hand and holding onto it. “Maybe we should pretend to be boyfriends again when you don’t feel weird anymore. For a prank, or whatever.”

“I think I might like that.” Naruto said, his cheeks pretty flushed. “If it’s just for a little while. You know we’d kill each other if it’s for too long.”

Sasuke smiled. “Oyasumi, dobe.”

“Oyasumi, teme.”

There was something strangely comforting having Sasuke’s warm hand holding his own. His heart was beating a little faster and he could feel Sasuke’s breath on his skin, even so far apart. He did not really want to fall asleep and end this, but the medicine gave him little choice in the matter. Before he knew it, he was drifting off and the dreams started again.

~*~

The assignment had already taken too long. Naruto looked over all the men in the bar. He had talked with most of them and they had all given the same story. The carpenter had slept with them and was great at parties. They did not have the information he needed about the apparent suicide. He tried one more guy, which was a bust, and then called it a night.

“You’re not much of a drinker, are you?” Sasuke said as Naruto was about to leave. The beauty had a hand on his hip and was smirking at Naruto.

“Sake’s just not my taste.” Naruto answered. “And I shouldn’t be drinking while I’m on the job.”

“Ah yes, making your deals. Is that why you always leave here before it gets any fun?”

“I need to get to the inn on time for dinner. What’s so special about the night here anyway?”

“Anything can happen. Most nights there’s music and dancing, but when I get drunk enough I can be tempted into performing. I was in the theatre group, you know.”

Naruto’s face lit up. “You were an actor?”

“I was going to be. Those plans got derailed along the way. Have you performed?”

“Just when I was a kid. I’d rope my friend into playing with me and reading out the lines. He never made for a very believable hero though.”

“Why don’t you show me those lines? See if I can’t be your hero?”

Naruto smiled. He was off duty. How much trouble could he get in with Konoha if he had a bit of fun?

~*~

Naruto sat at a bar, looking over all the different guys. He had been with most of them and they had all been fun. But much like his carpentry, he quickly got bored with his projects. He had yet to meet the man that could tie him down.

And then there she was. Sasuke was sitting at the edge of the bar in the most beautiful dress Naruto had ever seen. Her long black hair framed her face and the smile that appeared when they locked eyes was transcendent.

“I don’t think we’ve met.” Naruto sat, sliding into space next to her.

“I don’t suppose we have.”

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“I shouldn’t.”

“But it’s so delicious! Best sake in all of Shigandan.”

“Well, I’d hope so.” She chuckled. “Maybe a single one won’t hurt.”

Naruto was enamoured. He stepped right up to the bar and got a whole bottle.

“Really?”

“It’s to share, I promise.” A single drink would go to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He would offer more after she was done, but his mother had not raised him to ever pressure someone about alcohol. Not that he could ever bring himself to harm a woman as beautiful as her.

~*~

“And this will be your stage.”

Naruto looked around. It was daunting just how big the room was when he looked at it from up there.

“How many people fit in here?”

“Two hundred.” The man said. “A little more on special nights when they don’t mind standing.”

Naruto whistled. “Impressive.”

“You’re not performing yet, brat. Come meet your group. This here is Kemeko-hime. This little princess is set to inherit the whole theatre in a few years.”

“So nice to see you here, Sora.” Sakura grinned. “We’ve heard great things.”

“Of course you did. I’m amazing.” Naruto said.

“You have to tell us; how did you manage it? Nobody else gets drafted until they’re at least twelve.”

“Ah, now that would be telling. You’re the stage producer, right?”

She nodded. “My mother taught me. I make sure everything goes all right backstage while you work the house.”

“Is that a very difficult job?”

“You have no idea. Everything tends to go wrong on production nights. But I’ll take it as a compliment. If you’ve never noticed, that means my mom and I are doing a good job.”

The man motioned to the back of the stage. “And here’s little Hisoka. He has a way with wood that I haven’t seen in years.”

Sasuke was standing in a corner of the stage, scrunched down and working on a large piece of background with a blue hand. He stopped what he was doing to give a small wave. “I’ll be building the sets for you.”

“I’ll leave you three to get acquainted. Remember, your first showing will be in three weeks. We expect great things from you.”

“But no pressure.” Naruto rolled his eyes. “I won’t be screwing this up. Even if these two crumble under the pressure, you can count on me.”

“I’ll let you know the problem won’t be my backgrounds.” Sasuke said. “Though you shouldn’t blame me if they draw more attention than you do.”

Sakura sighed. “I’ll get them in order.”

“I trust you, princess.” The man smiled, before moving off-stage to work on another group.

“Okay, listen up.” She said, moving between the two boys who were giving ever increasingly hostile looks at each other. “This may be a game to you two, but my reputation is on the line here. I won’t allow this bickering to get in the way of a good production.”

“My performance will be perfect.” Naruto said.

“My carpentry will be immaculate.” Sasuke said.

“And I won’t let anything fall apart.” Sakura said. “As long as you listen to me, we’ll pull it off.”

Sasuke blanched. “And what do you know of working with wood? That’s my area of expertise. You leave me alone to make the actual art and I’ll leave you alone to fuss backstage.”

“I got here on my own merits.” Naruto said. “I won’t let your meddling screw up my chances to make it big.”

“Fine then.” Sakura rolled her eyes. “We do our own thing, as good as we can.”

~*~

Sasuke was crying. Naruto and Sakura were not sure how to handle this.

“We failed.” Sasuke sobbed. “I worked so hard for weeks and they hated it.”

Naruto sighed, slumping down the wall to take a seat next to his team mate. “It was just a test run. We still have time to fix it for tomorrow.”

“How?” Sasuke tried to wipe away the tears, but they just kept coming. “We can’t just change what we rehearsed. They said it was terrible. They couldn’t enjoy the woodwork because the lighting was wrong.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “My lighting directions were perfect. If Sora could just stand where he was supposed to, it would not have mattered. Or actually done the sad scenes sadly, so that the music fitted.”

“You give me funny lines, I’m going to deliver them with humour. And I couldn’t stand where I was supposed to. The backgrounds were in the way.”

“You have a whole stage to use. How the hell are the wooden fixtures at the back of the stage a problem for you?”

“Stop this.” Sakura said. “We failed because we didn’t work together.”

Naruto punched the floor. “Damn it. They left halfway through the show. Just left! I did not want my debut to be like this. I can’t go back to the orphanage. I need this.”

“Do you think I like it that we failed?” Sakura asked. “This was supposed to get them to notice me. My dad told me he’d let me write my own show if I could pull off this production. That would have been the first step. If I can write a successful enough show, I can convince them to let me produce it in other villages. I wanted to travel the Fire Nation and hear all the different stories. I want to be the most famous playwright there ever was.”

Sasuke sniffed. “My dad told me he’d show me the final clan techniques if I finished this production. I’d be the youngest carpenter to learn them in centuries. I would be on my way to creating my own techniques, bringing in a new era for the Kobayashi family. I thought it’d be enough to make good woodwork, but dad’s furious. The reputation of the family is on the line. He said if I don’t understand it’s about more than the wood, I am not ready yet.”

“I get it.” Naruto sighed. “I’ve been practicing for years to get into the theatre. There’s a little opening at the back of the room where I’d sneak through. I was worried about getting caught, but the audience was so focussed on the stage that they never noticed me. I’d mouth along with the words and perform it by myself for the other children.”

“We know you worked hard to become an actor.”

“No, being an actor is just a stepping stone.” Naruto said. “I like the theatre, but it’s not what I worked so hard for. I want to be a ninja. The Akimichi clan is very eager to recruit people outside of their family. I’m keeping my physique up, I’m keeping to my studies, but my acting was going to be the thing that set me apart from everyone else. I need this production to work so that I can get recommended to their ninja training.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Sasuke asked. “Ninja are warriors.”

“But they’re heroes too.” Naruto said. “I want to help as many people as I possibly can. My parents were killed when they were travelling to this village. It was a ninja who found me and fought off the bandits to bring me safely here. Just because he could.”

Sakura nodded. “We need to pull ourselves together. Sora’s right. We can still fix all this if we really try.”

“How? We keep clashing when we’re trying to compromise on things.”

“Then let’s not compromise.” Sakura said. “Our problem is that we keep thinking only about our own portion of the show. Take the opening monologue. Hisoka, why did you make the background so gloomy?”

“The words are all about disappointing your family. The character feels dejected. He has trouble finding meaning in a world without his family.”

“See, I read it differently.” Sakura said. “It’s hopeful. He knows he has screwed up, but he believes he can repent. Sora, how did you read it?”

“I read it as freedom.” Naruto said. “He realises that he can leave the expectations they had behind and continue on to choose for himself what to do with his life.”

Sasuke put his hands to his face. “How are we supposed to choose which one is right?”

“We don’t.” Sakura took a piece of paper and started sketching out directions. “We embrace the complexity of the scene. I’ll have them change the music and vary the lighting during the scene. Yeah, he’s sad that he lost his family. Maybe a part of him thinks he can get them back. He experiences freedom for the first time of his life and it’s scary how good that feels. Sora, can you add these layers into your performance?”

“It’ll be challenging, but I can do it. Can you add it into the background, Hisoka?”

“I think I can. I made a lonely bird, apart from its flock. If I remove the middle section, it’ll move them closer together so it’s more ambivalent whether the separation is permanent. And I can add more colour to the bird’s wings, to emphasise its ability to fly.”

“We can do this.” Sakura said. “We can fix this.”

Naruto and Sasuke both nodded. “Just watch us soar.”

~*~

“You must let me invite you to city hall for tea, Sora-kun. After such a performance, it’s the least we can offer.”

“I’d be delighted of course. As long as my team can come with me. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”

“Don’t be so modest. You’re the one who did all the acting. It’s you we came to see.”

“I have to insist, madam.” Naruto motioned for Sakura and Sasuke to come to him. “I’ve been doing things on my own for too long. I’m not planning on leaving them anytime soon.”

The old woman smiled. “Okay then. All three of you can come. We have much to discuss.”

“Kemeko-chan won’t be able to make it.” Kakashi said. He put his hand on Sakura’s shoulder and stood proudly behind her. It could not help but bring a smile to Naruto’s face. He was the kindest man Naruto knew. “She has plans.”

“Are you sure otou-san? It’d be just for a night.”

“I suppose you could, but I thought you’d want to get started writing as soon as possible.”

She lit up, but then looked at her teammates. And she remembered what Naruto had just been saying. “It can wait a day. I can make up for the lost time.”

They celebrated and Naruto had never felt better about himself.

~*~

Naruto had screwed up. His heart was pounding because he feared the worst. It was dangerous outside the village, especially in a rainstorm like this, but his thoughts were back at the theatre. He had never seen Sasuke that upset.

The trees all looked the same when he only had the light of the full moon to guide him. The dark clouds kept passing over the light and left only darkness. But he had to cut it down tonight. There was no time to wait. If he could not find the correct one, he would just have to saw down different kinds. Making an impossible task even harder.

He started. The blade was hard to work with and it kept slipping in his hands. His hands felt sticky and he did not know if it was the tree’s sap or some of his own blood.

“Sora.” Sasuke rushed towards him.

Of course he came here. He only knew of this grove because Sasuke had told him and Sasuke needed the wood. “You can probably do this better than I can.”

Yet Sasuke had no eyes for the trees surrounding them. “What did you do to your hands?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry. I’ll leave. You said you never wanted to see me again, so I get it. But I can still help you cut down the wood you came for. I can still fix this. If you’ll allow me.”

“No.” Sasuke said. “You’re wrong.”

Naruto wanted to cry, but his eyes had no more tears to give. The rain fell on his face and he wondered how he could ever be a ninja and help others, when he could not even help his own friend.

“You’re wrong.” Sasuke said again. “Because there’s nothing to fix between us. You’re wrong, because there’s something wrong with your hands and we need to get you help and you’re stupid and you’re an idiot. You’re wrong, because I didn’t come here for the wood.”

Sasuke stepped closer and embraced the orphan who had never had anyone. “I came here for you, Sora.”

They had their first kiss and it was wet and cold and clumsy.

~*~

They had their first kiss and it was everything Naruto had hoped it would be. He had spent the whole night dialoguing on the stage with his hero. Sasuke had given him a script, but they had quickly started improvising. The scene was meant to be played by a man and a woman, but Naruto liked the all-male version they had created much more.

Their lips touched and Sasuke’s lips felt like fire. Just like in the dreams. Must have been the sake Sasuke had been drinking all night. Tasting it off the lips of this beautiful man, he was starting to understand why others liked it so.

“I need to go.” Naruto said, but he was not moving towards the door. He was glued to this magnificent man and together they made it to a bed nowhere near the inn he was staying. Their clothes seemed to disappear as their naked bodies entwined. It would be the second time in his life that Naruto had sex.

“Tori…”

Naruto buried his face between the man’s legs so he could keep his mouth from unwittingly revealing his real name. He wanted Sasuke to know him completely. These feelings were dangerous on a mission. But it was just a crush. Just one night of fun, before he would go back to his duties.

Thinking of going back to Konoha without his hero brought a bitter taste to his mouth.

~*~

The tea was expensive and bitter. Naruto did not like it at all, but Sakura sure seemed to. They talked and a lot of it went over Naruto’s head. They liked his acting and they wanted to take him under his wing. Whenever the conversation focussed too much on him, he made sure to mention Sakura’s stage directions or Sasuke’s woodworking.

When they all finished, they snuck off to the brick district. There was one factory that was shut down for the winter and they could hang out there without anyone catching them. Naruto had found it exploring the city and he was eager to share his special spot.

His cute teammates looked so nervous. It was the first time either of them were breaking rules. They looked even worse when Naruto offered them a drink.

“We were cranes tonight.” Naruto said. “We get to celebrate.”

“I don’t like the crane in that story.” Sakura said.

Both boys turned to her. “The crane is awesome.”

“The crane is stupid and unrealistically optimistic. I’m the smart one. I’m a shark.”

“I’d resent that, but you do know how to pronounce all these fancy words.”

“That’s just because of the logomachies with my dad.”

“…You did that on purpose.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Which just leaves the carpenter. In the water with me, or in the clouds with the actor?”

“I like the crane.” He said. “Free to fly away. But I think I feel more stuck in the water.”

“I can’t believe you two. How will you ever fly if you’re not cranes?”

“I’m a crane too.” Sasuke complained.

“Nope, if you’re stuck in the water you’re a shark.

Sakura put her hand on Naruto’s. “But don’t you see, that’s the beauty of it. We might not have wings, but as long as we’re together you’ll help us soar, right?”

He nodded. “Together.”

~*~

Naruto was bathing. It was nice to have a private bath to relax in after the show. No matter how many times he performed, no matter how thoroughly Sakura and Sasuke had proven he could rely on them over the years, it still stressed him out.

He heard the door slide open.

“Occupied.” He said.

The door slid close again. Naruto was about to ignore it all together, when he heard a few footsteps.

“Look, I already told you…”

Sasuke held a towel to his chest with both of his hands. It was the only thing covering him up and it was too short to conceal his crotch. Naruto found himself staring. That just made the boy blush. It was adorable.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Soka. We can stick to kissing in hidden nooks. I don’t want to pressure you.”

“You said you really wanted to see me naked.” Sasuke said.

Naruto smiled. “And I’m really enjoying myself.” He stood up, showing off his own naked body to the other boy. It was the least he could do.

Sasuke was too shy to get a good look, though he clearly wanted to. It was okay. They would get there eventually.

“Come join me in the water, little shark. Maybe it’s easier for you to look once you’re done feeling.”

~*~

“Cut up those boards for me.” Sasuke motioned for the wood by the left side of the stage.

“You got it, boss.” Naruto lined them all up on top of each other.

“That’s too thick. You won’t be able to make it through.”

Naruto sliced them in one quick motion.

“How freaking much have you been practicing?”

“Day and night. You know me.”

“Always looking for an opportunity to soar.” Sasuke looked away. “You’re good enough to be a ninja, for sure.”

“Please, I still have plenty to learn. There’s a reason I’m only cutting the wood, while you make all the intricate markings. My control is still shit. But I have been working on my signature move. I’m calling it ‘The Crane’. I can’t wait to show you.”

“If it’s the control that’s bothering you, the ninja clans would have better ways to teach you.” Sasuke said.

“Those boring old coots wouldn’t be half as fun to listen to as you, though.” Naruto separated the planks back into piles for Sasuke to use.

“Sora, I think we need to talk. My parents are planning to wed me off.”

“Okay, we’ve prepared for this.” Naruto looked his boyfriend in the eyes, as serious as he could be. “Did you tell them to shove it up their asses like we practiced?”

“No.” Sasuke said. “I’m considering it.”

Naruto dropped the wood. “You’re what?”

“It’s a good match. A girl from the next town over with specialised training in different ways to dry the wood. It’ll bring the family more power and our children would be very prosperous.”

“Fuck that. Why are you talking like this? I love you, Soka. You’re everything to me.”

“But you want to be a ninja too. I’m keeping you here. I’m holding you back.”

“It’s just not the right time.”

“It’s the perfect time. You’ve heard the news too. The Senju and Uchiha clans have made peace. They’re founding a new village together and gathering as many eager people as they can. All are welcome. You don’t know how long they’ll accept outsiders.”

“You could come with me. We can be ninja together.”

“I have a responsibility to my family. I can’t leave. We’ve been over this.”

“Then I’ll stay. I don’t have to be a ninja.”

“I can’t be the reason you give up on your dream. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. We always knew this had to end someday. Our relationship had an expiration date.”

“I don’t want this to end.” Naruto said. “I won’t let it.” He would be the fucking crane. He would hold that annoying shark in his talons and he would fly them both far, far away. They would fucking soar.

“We can be happy with all the time we’ve had.” Sasuke said. “I’ll never forget it. But there’s no way out of this where we get everything we want. You have to grow up and accept this. We’re not children anymore.”

Naruto felt the tears run down his cheeks. “No. I refuse this.”

“There’s no way around it.”

“We’ll find a way.” Naruto said. “We always do. We’ll ask Kemeko. She’ll know what to do. We…”

A terrifying scream sounded through the building. Naruto and Sasuke ran to see what it was.

~*~

All three of them were covered in blood. Sasuke was sobbing. Naruto was not far away from tears as well. This was supposed to be the happy trail. They went up the slope to the waterfall to be free from the city. This is where they came to laugh and be themselves.

They were not supposed to walk this trail dragging a corpse along with them. Rain was pouring down on them, making the way more slippery and treacherous. But it was the only way.

“Are you sure about this?” Sasuke asked.

“It’s the best way to conceal the other wounds he sustained.” Naruto said. “After the fall, the doctor won’t be able to tell what happened before and what happened after his death.”

“And they’ll believe it was suicide?” Sakura asked.

“What else are they going to think when they find a dead body at the bottom of that waterfall?”

“I don’t like tarnishing his reputation like this.” Sasuke said. “He was a good man.”

“Not at the end.” Sakura said. “You should have heard the horrible things he was saying. The things he wanted to do…”

“It’s over now.” Naruto said. “Just a little farther, and we can leave this night behind us.”

“I don’t know if we can really leave this behind us.” Sasuke said. “Every time we’ll look at the waterfall, it’ll be wrong.”

“That’s why I won’t be around for long.” Naruto said. “I’m going to Konoha.”

“You’re leaving?” Sakura asked. “But we’re in the middle of a play.”

“I’ll wrap up this play and then we’re done.”

“I thought we were friends.” Sakura said.

“Fuck you. You see all of this I’m doing now? You think I’d do that for anyone less than a friend?”

“I don’t want you to go.” Sakura said. “And what about Hisoka? Are you just going to leave him?”

“Soka broke up with me tonight.” Naruto said.

“I didn’t mean…” Sasuke protested. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

They reached the clearing by the shrine. The cliff’s edge was only a little further now. The full moon was shining down on them.

“Let’s get this over with.” Naruto made sure he had a good hold of the body before continuing.

“I was afraid.” Sasuke said.

“Afraid of what?”

“Ninja are killing machines. That’s what all the stories said. I was afraid if I went with you that I would have to deal with dead bodies. I was afraid I would end up with blood on my hands. But most of all, I was afraid I would freeze up and I would not be able to help you. That I’d see something bad happen to you and my own body wouldn’t listen when I told it to help. I feared fighting, but I was terrified I’d see something happen to you and would have to live with the fact that I could have saved you.”

“You wouldn’t need to.” Naruto said. “I would protect you from it. You could be a carpenter in Konoha and never see a single battle.”

“I’m not betraying my family to become a carpenter in another town.” Sasuke said. “If I’m going to betray them, it’s so that I can be alongside my boyfriend and kick ass together. And I think I’m ready to do that.”

“You want to come with me?”

“I’ve always wanted to, Sora. That’s never been the problem.”

“I’ll be all alone.” Sakura said. “I don’t know how I can live with this without you supporting me.”

“Then come with us.” Naruto said. “You’re really smart and you know how to move around without getting noticed. The three of us can be ninja together.”

“Like we always dreamed.” Sakura said. “I never pictured it like this though.”

“We play with the cards dealt to us.” Naruto tested the cliff’s edge, making sure he had the proper footing to throw an adult man down. “Do you want to say your final goodbyes?”

Sakura bent down and placed a hand on the body’s chest. “I’m not sorry for what I did, but I’m sorry it had to be done. Thanks for all the good years, I suppose. I really did appreciate those.” She nodded to Naruto.

Naruto and Sasuke worked together to throw the body over. He just hoped they would have time to clean themselves of all the blood before Kakashi’s body was found.

~*~

Naruto was under the waterfall, giggling with his boyfriend and they carved a heart into the stone. “You have to put more power into it.”

“That screws up the markings.” Sasuke said, while he was trying it anyway.

“It doesn’t have to be pretty, just recognisable as a heart. I want to leave something of us behind when we’re gone.”

“Don’t blame me if we have to start over.”

Naruto’s clothes were soaked and his hand was sore from chakra use, but he was proud to look at what they had managed. His name was Sora and he would be part of the village forever.

Naruto’s clothes were soaked and his hand was sore where he had used the chisel, but he was happy at what they had managed together. She had been so excited to step out of her shell and come to Lover’s Rock. He did not have the heart to tell her this was the second time he had carved his name into the stone. But he meant it this time. His name was Naoko and he would leave this village with his girlfriend.

Naruto’s clothes were soaked and his hand was absolutely fine. He had practiced far too much with chakra to let a little carving bother him. At least, that was what he wanted his boyfriend to think. It was actually harder than it had looked in his dreams. His name was Akira and he would succeed where Sora and Naoko had failed. He would take his boyfriend with him to Konoha before the village of Shigandan could get to them.

~*~

Naruto was shivering in the cold. The village was laid out in front of him, looking deceitfully peaceful under the moonlit sky. He had been meaning to leave the village, but it was his fate to die in its confines.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“But I do.” Naruto said.

Sasuke stepped closer, but Naruto threatened to step off and that kept the other boy at bay.

“I wanted to go to Konoha with you. I wanted to be ninja together.” Sasuke was sobbing.

“You can go without me.”

“I’ll never go anywhere without you.” Sasuke tried to take another step forward, but he was stopped.

Sakura held onto Sasuke’s arm tightly. “Jump.”

Naruto sighed. Could she not give them a few more minutes? But he knew he had no choice. He could hear the waterfall. It had to be a very long drop to the ground. He wondered what people would think when they found him. Would they believe it was suicide? He hovered one leg over the edge.

“Don’t...” Sasuke cried.

Naruto smiled. He looked back at his teammates. “All my life, people have been telling me I’m worthless, you know. That they’d rather see me dead. I guess they’re about to get their wish.”

“You can’t do this.”

Naruto grinned as wide as he could. “You know me. Always looking for an excuse to soar.”

Naruto stepped back and he fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be posted Thursday, November 28th.


	6. Moon is up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto has trouble waking up after all the dreaming. Team 7 visits a theatre, does some chakra testing and finds out where Naoko got his cypress.

Naruto gasped and shot upright, fighting to remove the covers from his body.

“Naruto, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Soka.” Naruto rubbed at his head. “Just a bad dream.”

“Who’s Soka?” Sasuke sat himself next to Naruto.

The blond blinked a few times, trying to get the sleep to leave his system. “He’s the carpenter boy. I’m just a little confused.”

“Do you know who I really am?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Naruto said. At Sasuke’s worried look, Naruto continued. “You’re Sasuke Uchiha and we make up team 7 together with Sakura and Kakashi. I told you, it’s just hard to get out of the vivid dreams.”

“Did you learn anything new?”

“I saw a lot, but it’s all fragmented. I’ll tell you what I can.” Naruto could see some sunlight streaking into the room. “What time is it?”

“Just passed sunrise. Whatever Sakura gave you did the trick.”

“I missed my shift.”

“You needed the extra sleep.”

Naruto stood up. He blushed red when he realised his pants were wet. He looked around frantically for something to cover himself up with before Sasuke could see.

Sasuke sighed and turned around. “Just get yourself cleaned up and I’ll take care of things here.”

“I can take care of it myself.”

“Dobe, I know you can. But you won’t have to.”

Naruto went to the bathroom and stripped himself naked. He did not know how to feel about this. He remembered the caregivers at the orphanage, teaching him to live by himself as quickly as possible. They would not get angry if he asked for help, but they would be disappointed and they would find some way to punish him for it.

When he still had trouble working his chopsticks and asked for help eating, they pulled some of the kids aside to help him. The older women made sure to pick kids who were enjoying playtime and who would be most annoyed at him. That night, the kids would not leave him alone. They teased him endlessly about being a baby who could not eat by himself. They fashioned a bib and tied it around his neck. They took a pacifier from one of the other kids and forced it in his mouth. When one of the caregivers came to force them all apart, she consoled Naruto by telling him it would probably be better to grow up faster.

He learned quickly that it was better to fail by himself than to ask for help.

But he needed help now. The dreams were intense and hard to make sense of. He had gotten a full night’s rest and he was still tired. Trying to process the maze of memories gave him a headache and left him more confused than when he had started. Was any of it even real?

He rinsed himself off, before running a warm bath. With all the stress he was under, it would be nice to get a chance to fully relax. This usually did the trick. No matter how stressed he got before a performance, a bath helped him get out of his head. He slipped into the tub and tried to let the worries pass away.

The door slid open.

Naruto smiled as Sasuke walked in. Except this Sasuke was not naked and timidly asking to join him. The smile faded. “What are you doing here?”

“This seemed like the best place to get this all clean.”

Naruto nodded hesitantly. “Right. The sink is in the corner.” He changed his position so he would be less exposed. It was a little uncomfortable.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “We’ve been to bathhouses before. Nothing I haven’t seen already.”

Naruto sighed. “This is payback for making you clean up, isn’t it?”

“Not at all.” Sasuke smirked. “It’s payback for yesterday.”

“Of course.” Naruto groaned. “Well, fine then.” He put his hands behind his back and laid back. If that bastard wanted to look, it was not going to ruin his bath.

“You’re impossible.”

“I try.” Naruto said.

Sasuke held Naruto’s clothes under the faucet and started cleaning them. “That reaction when I came in… another remnant of the dreams?”

“Yeah. Soka walked in on Sora bathing. His intention was to get in the water with him.”

“What happened next?”

“I didn’t get to see that part. It’s weird. I experience the events along with Sora and I even think like him. I remember the things they remember, but only if they are actively thinking about it. I somehow saw Akira too.”

Sasuke turned around to look at Naruto. “You saw Akira?”

“He met someone in the Red Rooster and he seemed happy. I saw him carving his name into the wall behind the waterfall. He was thinking about bringing his boyfriend back to Konoha.”

“That doesn’t sound like a suicidal man.”

“Do you think we can trust the dreams?” Naruto asked. “Sakura said they could be pretty unreliable.”

“No, not trust.” Sasuke said. “But they can be clues where to look next.”

There was a call from their bedroom. “Are you guys awake yet?”

Sasuke put the clothes to the side and dried his hands. “Yeah.” He turned to Naruto. “I’ll talk with her. Take your time.”

“I’m not so fragile, you know. But thanks.”

Naruto finished his bath and got dressed. He found his teammates at the bar having breakfast. It was a lot busier now with the guards joining them.

“Thanks again for the medicine. It helped a lot.” Naruto said.

“You’re welcome. Do you need more for tonight?”

“That would be great.”

“I’m happy you’re sleeping through the night.” Chiharu said. “Though I would not have minded the midnight tea again either. It’s suddenly gotten a lot busier than I am used to.”

“I hope it’s not too much of a bother.” Kakashi said.

“It’s just a bit of a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. We have all these rooms, anyway. Better that they’re used.”

“Oh, Kimiko-san said she’d show us the play with the crane and the shark today.”

“I’m happy our Princess has the time.” Chiharu said. “There’s not a single child in Shigandan that doesn’t know the story. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“But first, we need to get sorted for the day. Thank you so much for the meal.”

Kakashi led them back to their bedroom. He had laid out the paperwork all over the floor. “It’s hard to figure out what order the mission report is supposed to be in. The first third is properly labelled and describes his first findings. An overview of the town and the major players. The rest seems to be written in a code of his own invention.”

“Is that usual?”

“Not unless he thought another ninja might be reading it. Even then, most jounin would use more complicated Konoha codes, rather than create something themselves. This is the kind of measure somebody takes when he believes there is another Konoha ninja working against him.”

“What would a Konoha ninja be doing here?”

“No idea. But we’re close enough to Konoha. A ninja could come here in his off time. We should be on the lookout for any suspicious people who could be under a henge.”

“Or there is another possibility.” Sasuke noted. “Akira could have encoded the mission report because he was engaging in illegal activities.”

“He’s not the kind of person to do these things.”

“Yet Naruto saw him in his dreams having a boyfriend while on an undercover mission.”

“Is that true?”

Naruto tried to convey as much of the dreams as he could. He left out the more explicit parts and anything else that seemed irrelevant.

“You’re saying the orphan and the carpenter from the stories faked a suicide?”

“Of the theatre princess’ father.” Naruto said. “And later she made Sora kill himself.”

“Her granddaughter might still be using the same trick today.” Sasuke said.

“Do you know how she forced them to obey?”

“No.” Naruto admitted.

“Do you know why the girl’s father had died?”

“No.” Naruto shook his head. “It’s all in bits and pieces.”

“I was planning on sending a clone with you today.” Kakashi said. “But I think it’s better if we stick together while we’re around Watanabe-san. I’ll let a clone continue working on these documents.”

They took their time gathering their things, before they let themselves be escorted to the theatre.

It was bigger and more glamorous than even the city hall, spanning multiple buildings and displaying large intricate wooden carvings on all the walls. They were greeted by one of the princess’ top students.

“We’re happy you could make it.” The boy said. “My name’s Baki.”

“I thought Watanabe-san would be meeting us herself.”

“She’ll join us for the play, but she had urgent matters to attend to. Come, let me show you around.”

They entered the theatre into a grand foyer. Multiple balconies were mounted along the walls. The walls were adorned with more carvings, with several symbols repeated throughout the room.”

“This is the entrance.” Baki said. “It is the pride of this place to make a good first impression.”

“What does all the imagery mean?”

“They’re all blessings. Some of them are from our town itself. Those usually mean things like stability or safety. Others were inspired by neighbouring villages. Like that one there that looks like a triangle. It’s from Tubuka, across the valley. It represents strength through unity.”

“It’s impressive.”

“Thank you. Only our best carpenters earn the right to add to the theatre’s markings. Since you’re special guests, we figured we would show you around backstage.” They unlocked a side door and led them through a snug hallway. Though there was little room to move, there were still props being stored that often got in their way and forced them to hug the wall.

There was a large storage of costumes in the side rooms, together with ornaments and face paints. In the basement, large wooden panels were arranged next to each other. They were stacked, but thick cloths placed between them kept them from being damaged. Naruto considered looking for the piece that Soka had created, but it was a needle in a haystack.

“Over here are the actors, getting ready.”

“You’re early, Baka.” One of the girls said. She was painting her eyes. “It ruins the illusion when you show people what we look like out of our costume.”

“Special guests, Lume.” The boy responded. “I doubt some ninja are going to be duped by your shoddy performance.”

“Your jealousy is showing again, Mr. Bratty Brat Twat the Third.”

“Oh, shut it, hag.” The boy pointed at her. “She’s the oldest member still in the youth squad.”

Sakura looked around. “There are a lot of children here.”

“Most of the kids in town spend some time in the theatre.” Baki explained. “It’s part of our schooling. The very best enter into the youth squad for special training, where we stand a chance of being transferred into the permanent crew.”

“You seem to take this all very seriously.”

“Centuries ago, our ancestors believed that we could best appease the gods through a well-executed play. It would keep the demons away by protecting us. Priests led the plays and there was no greater honour than assisting them. The priests are gone, but the theatre remains.”

“Are the plays religious themselves?”

“No, not at all.” Baki chuckled. “Personally, I think even the priests didn’t take it too seriously. It was a fun way to raise awareness and get attention.”

“But there’s the parable of the foxes on the mountain.” Lume said. “That’s pretty religious.”

“There’s nothing religious about it.”

“There’s the whole moral of giving onto others. That’s clearly religious.”

“No, that’s just good storytelling.”

Sakura coughed. “What about Watanabe-san?”

“Sorry?”

“You said most of the kids spent a lot of time around here growing up. Is that how Watanabe-san got into theatre?”

“Our princess was ill for most of her childhood.” The boy said. “The same illness that is currently tormenting her daughter Kukiko.”

“Is Kukiko okay?”

“The medicine is supposed to help. She is locked away in the Watanabe mansion, away from anyone who would inadvertently harm her. Her mother is so protective that we’ve hardly ever seen her.”

“Doesn’t she ever come out to play?”

“She’s an intellectual like her mother. She gets books delivered to her and is under special tutelage from Watanabe-hime herself. She’s so lucky. She gets to write plays already and she is directly taught by such a great writer.”

“I’m sure she won’t consider herself so lucky if she’s as bedridden as you say.”

“Of course. It’s just, all of us are working hard to get a chance of success. The Watanabe family is legendary. Our princess is better than her mother, who in turn was better than her mother. And Watanabe-hime’s already setting up Kukiko to surpass her.”

“That does sound like a high bar to pass. Doesn’t she get frustrated?”

“You’d have to ask Watanabe-hime.” Baki said. “She seems to have turned out all right and she was under the same pressure.”

“Kukiko’s already arranged to be married, you know.” Lume said. “She’s younger than me and already has a fiancé lined up. Never gets to experiment or figure things out for herself.”

“Not everybody wants to try out boys like different outfits.”

“Excuse me for having some fashion sense.” Lume said, before getting a big smile on her face. “In that analogy, wouldn’t you be chronically naked?”

“So, that was the actor’s room. Wasn’t that nice? Wasn’t that fun?” The boy quickly took team 7 away, before Lume could elaborate. Through a small archway, they reached the next building. It was at least three stories of bookcases, stacked bottom to top.

“What does a theatre need with a library this size?”

“This is the other reason that we spend a lot of time here growing up. The Watanabe family has amassed this collection over the years. A significant portion was written by them as well.”

“I thought they were playwrights?”

“They’re well-read in general.” Baki said. “They want to be well-informed to better write their plays. Which also means researching subjects and gathering data together. For one play, our hime wished to portray the Fire Country’s court. She pulled together all the written records to create her own references, spread over three books. She shares that with anyone who is interested in the same subject.”

“Is there anything on ninja here as well?” Kakashi asked.

Baki hesitated. “No, I don’t suppose there is. Our resources are limited and we do not have a lot of information on Konoha or the other Hidden villages. That means any books we do have were written before the treaty with Konoha. They would describe ninja as warriors from different clans, spread over the lands. Nothing about what it has actually become.”

“That at least explains why there’s so much misinformation.” Sakura said. “We should probably get you some proper resources about ninja.”

“I kind of like the mystery, actually.” Baki said. “If nothing else, it motivates us to finally put forward a chakra sensitive kid.”

“We’ll be doing the tests this afternoon. Are you coming?”

“Ship has sailed for me.” Baki said. “Even if I had gotten the ability since the last time I was tested, I would not want to leave my life behind here. I have the best shot of my peers to getting a permanent shot on the theatre’s crew. That sounds a lot better than going to Konoha to try to play catch-up with kids who have been able to practice for years.”

“Being an actor is a good skill for a ninja though.” Naruto said. “It’s not like none of your skills would be transferable.”

“I guess that’s true. You know what, I’ll give it a try. Round up some of my friends. Nice final attempt.”

“Do you have anyone in mind who might be a candidate?”

“The carpenters are your best bet. They’re always trying to get their chakra under control again to help them with woodcarving.”

“Do you know how they used chakra in their craft?”

“It is said they used chakra for everything. They enhanced their axes to make them sharper. The really tough ones could fell a tree just by swiping with an open palm, while the most practiced could engrave finer than the width of a cat’s hair.”

“And none of them became ninja in the past?”

“Our village doesn’t have a history of ninja training. They did not know how to increase their speed or strength. In desperate times, they would take up arms and help defend the village, but they were hardly more effective than the guards who train day in and out. When Konoha first came to us, tragedy had befallen their best prodigies. A terrible illness had claimed the younger generation.”

“While the elders were too old to benefit much from ninja training.” Sakura said. “It’s strange though that there hasn’t been a chakra sensitive kid since then.”

“We’re still holding out for one.” The boy said. “Of course, there are plenty of orphans around who could surprise us. A lot of children sook refuge after the last war.”

An older man gave Baki a signal. “Ah, it seems we’re expected in the main room.”

They took a longer way back, arriving at the opposite end of the entrance hall they had left. The theatre room itself was impressive too. There were soft matts on the ground for sitting on, with low tables in front of each row.

Kimiko was waiting for them. “Please, take a seat. I’m glad to see you all here. After my chat with Naruto, I was hoping to get to talk with all four of you.”

“It was an invitation we could not refuse.” Kakashi said.

“I’ve arranged for tea to be served. The play will commence shortly.”

“Did you write this one yourself?” Naruto asked.

“I could not resist making a few small tweaks, but the public wouldn’t stand for it if I made any serious alterations to such a classic story.”

“I noticed you drafted children to perform for us.” Kakashi said. “They must be quite talented if you would select them over your adult crew for entertaining foreign dignitaries.”

“Of course I have great trust in them. And since Konoha shows the spirit of teenagers excelling despite their young age, it was only fitting we did the same.”

Baki frowned. “We’d still rather be at the party though.”

“What party?” Naruto asked.

Kimiko hesitated for the shortest moment, barely noticeable to anyone who was not a ninja. “The remembrance of my grandmother’s passing.”

“All the actors are invited to come and pay their respects.” Baki nodded. “The mayor will be there as well as the heads of the major families.”

“My grandmother was very beloved by the village. She reinvented the theatre and helped the village through very trying times. My mother used to bless her for leaving her with no more challenges to solve.”

“So the most experienced actors weren’t able to make it this morning.” Kakashi noted.

“If I had called on them, they would have come.” Kimiko said. “But I doubt the abilities of my top students will leave anything to be desired. It is my pride as a sensei. You must understand and relate, Kakashi-san, that you can only let your charges grow by giving them chances to go out and face difficult challenges.”

“My charges have been fully armed by years of training and talented smiths to face these challenges safely. Are your students well-armed?”

“They are well-equipped to handle whatever we throw at them.”

A servant came over with a tray to hand out tea for everyone.

“Your grandmother’s father was a playwright too, isn’t that right?” Kakashi asked.

“Yes. He was a very talented man and managed the theatre until his untimely death. My grandmother had to take over when she was still a teenager. Why the sudden interest?”

“Just trying to get a feeling of the fine traditions of this village.” Kakashi said. “Do you still perform his plays?”

“All of the old plays are performed at some point or another.” She said. “If it’s not because it has worth, then it is to study how it could have been improved.”

“Interesting. I would think you’d discard of the things you no longer find useful.”

“I don’t like to waste possible resources.”

“And if it doesn’t have any use anymore?”

She smiled. “Kakashi-san, I believe there’s worth in everything. Even if it’s not apparent at first glance.”

At the stage, the kids they had met earlier came out and took a big bow. Most of them left, so that only Lume was left. She was wearing a white mask, features further hidden by the paints on her face. It was hard to recognise her from anything but her voice.

“There once was a big lake.”

Lights were turned on to better highlight the background. It was hard to believe it was all wood, with all the details of coral and fish. Subtle blue paints gave it more depth and magnified its beauty. It somehow looked like bubbles of air formed and popped in the fake water.

“Many creatures lived in it. There were lobsters that walked the sea’s bottom. There were octopi that would rule them. And there were more fish than stars in the sky. Wanting to know what was at the surface, one shark ventured into the unknown.”

“Why good evening, strange shark.” The crane said. “I have not seen many of you around.”

“I don’t imagine you have. I am a courageous creature to come up so high.”

“Then a brave Shark, I will name you. Would you like to play?”

“The shark and the crane grew up together. The shark helped chase the fish into the crane’s traps. The crane would tell stories of all the sights that he had seen. Until one day, the crane told the shark about the largest lake that was said to exist.”

“When you are on its surface, you cannot see the edges.” The crane said. “I’ve heard it is as deep as the sky is high.”

“And are there many fish?”

“Many more than here.” The crane said. “We should try to find it together.”

“But this is my home and I do not want to abandon it.”

“We can make a better home. Though perhaps I should go alone. I can get there faster if I fly.”

“But who will help you catch your fish, Crane? I will come with you.”

“And so the shark and the crane went to the end of the lake and into the river. But after just a few days, the river became shallower and the shark became unable to catch fish by surprise.”

“I must go back.” The shark said. “I can no longer help you.”

“But the journey will be no fun without you, Shark. Let me help you like you have helped me.”

“The crane did more fishing than he had done in days and gathered a meal big enough for two. And so they continued. Until a few days later, when there was a heavy mist that settled over the land.”

“I must go back.” Said the crane. “I cannot see and can no longer guide you.”

“But I cannot eat without you, Crane. Let me guide you like you have guided me.”

“Together they made it through the mists and continued on their path. Until a few days later, when a large waterfall obstructed their path.”

“We have reached the end.” The shark said. “We cannot go on.”

“But wait.” The crane said. “I see the big lake in the distance. It is more beautiful than we ever imagined. We must get there.”

“But how can we get passed this?” The shark asked.

“We can try. Play close attention and watch me soar.”

“And the crane took a running start and he spread his wings. He glided down the cliff and made it safely to the ground.”

“I cannot do that.” The shark shouted over the sound of falling water. “I do not have wings. If I jump off this cliff, I will surely perish.”

“But the shark still decided to try. He swam back to have as much distance to work with as he could, before reaching a faster speed than he ever had before. And when he reached the waterfall, he shot forward through the air.”

“I can do this.” The shark said. “I do not have wings, but I am soaring. I am going to see the great lake. I am the courageous shark.”

“You went too fast, Shark!”

“You told me to. This is my first time flying. Did I do it wrong?”

The lights all went out. From the dark, Lume spoke. “The shark had built up such great speed that he had landed besides the river and onto the crane. Outside of the water, the shark could not move himself. The crane did not have the strength to free them. They suffocated soon after, far away from their home without ever reaching the ocean.”

The kids all came back on stage and took a bow.

Kimiko applauded politely and Team 7 followed her lead.

“What was that ending?” Naruto asked Sakura softly.

“I think the crane’s supposed to be Konoha.” She whispered. “We promise great things, and it may even seem appealing, but in the end we’re asking this town to do something that is impossible for them and it will only end in ruin for the both of us.”

“That’s one reading.” Kimiko said.

Sakura’s cheeks turned a little pink. “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”

“We enjoy an engaged audience.” She said. “I usually encourage it. This story existed before the birth of Konoha, so its creator cannot have had the Hidden village of the Leaf in mind. Though admittedly, even back then it was often understood to refer to other ninja clans who promised our village riches if only we would join them.”

“How else would you read it?”

Baki smiled. “We kids like to be optimistic. Through the crane’s encouragement, the shark did actually fly. As long as you’re aware of your own limits and careful enough, it’s fully possible to reach the ocean together.”

“I like that version better.” Naruto smiled. “It might be dangerous, but it can be worth it.”

Kimiko put down her empty tea cup. “What about you, Sasuke. What did you think of it?”

“I thought the ending was abrupt.” He said. “It’s not a satisfying conclusion when a suicidal drop cuts their story short before it can resolve.”

“As is often the case with sudden endings.” She said.

“We have heard there are many people who commit suicide near the waterfall by the edge of town. Perhaps you should refrain from sharing this story too much.”

“Why?” She seemed amused. “Do you suppose they jump off hoping to fly away?”

“I wouldn’t know enough about them to venture a guess.” Sasuke said. “Do you know why they do it?”

She seemed to consider it for a second, before she slid her empty cup over to Sasuke. “There is a bitter taste in my mouth. Can you tell me which tea leaf caused it?”

Sasuke looked into the cup. After a few seconds, He offered it to Sakura. She was better able to identify it. “There are a few leaves of Konoha roots in here.” She said. “Those can be bitter if they are dried too quickly. There’s Jade leaves as well, some breeds of which are bitter in a tea.”

“Do you know which particular leaf is the culprit?”

“It’s impossible to tell.”

“And if I order another tea and it turns out bitter. Will it be for the same reason?”

“It would be hard to say.”

“This village is like a collection of tea cups, each day a different little leaf. Each blend is unique and each blend is complex. It might be possible to find out why one tea became bitter, but there’s no one reason for all the different bitter teas.”

“Of course, it’s different if most of your teas end up bitter.” Kakashi noted. “You might start looking for a common cause.”

“Of course.” She said. “We have been investigating the deaths for a long time. Our police have not found a common element.”

“What have they uncovered?”

“You’d have to ask them.” She said. “Though I doubt they’ll be much inclined to share their findings with outsiders.”

“We could consult for them.”

“It’s still against the treaty for us to ask a ninja for help, if I must remind you.”

“We have been well reminded, thank you.”

“Someone mentioned it might be because the kids were gay.” Naruto said.

“Perhaps.” Kimiko said. “Many were too young to have a preference either way and I doubt the police would have found a correlation and kept it hidden.”

“Right.” Naruto was not sure he believed it.

“It was an interesting experience meeting up with you. If you’ll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to.”

“We should probably head to the testing place.”

The bodyguards escorted them out of the building and to a central location near city hall.

There were several members of the Watanabe family to greet them. “So happy you chose our business for your presence. We trust it will suffice.”

The room looked a lot bigger without all the family members coming together in it.

“It’s very suited to our needs.” Kakashi said. “When are we expecting the first children?”

“Ah, not until an hour or two.” The bodyguard said. He had checked in with the clerics in the next room.

“Could you check on my son first?” The man said. “If you have the time, at least.”

“It’ll be good practice.” Kakashi said.

The boy came over and they settled in a corner. He was a teenager their age and introduced himself as Uddo.

Naruto tried hard to pretend they had not already met at the party. Naruto had heard him boast around some women about his skills manipulating hard wood. The women had giggled and Uddo had not understood why.

“I know I probably won’t have the skills.” He said. “But I haven’t been tested since I was three. And it can’t hurt to check, right?”

“How come you missed so many examinations?”

“I had the children’s sickness. Not as bad as some of the others, but I had spells where I was bedridden for weeks on end.”

“That must have been very rough.”

“It wasn’t very fun to stay inside while all the other kids were playing. But it gave me time to practice my woodworking. I owe a lot of my skill to those days.”

“We’ll take it slow.” Sakura said. She placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on his wrist. “This might itch a little, but it won’t hurt.”

She took a few more moments to concentrate, before sending her jolt of chakra through his body. He jumped back.

“Whoa. I felt that.”

“Sorry, I’m still using a bit too much.”

“No, it was good. It actually felt powerful. Is this how ninja feel all the time?”

“Usually, yeah.”

“So, what’s the verdict?”

“No signs of chakra sensitivity, I’m sorry. It’s strange. Your pathways are well developed. That’s a sign of a strong physique and a healthy mind. But you don’t have the aptitude to manipulate your large pool of chakra.”

“A shame, but nothing I didn’t expect. Did you go through this testing as well?”

“Yeah.” Sakura said. “Though it’s a bit different in Konoha. Chakra sensitivity is the norm, so all of the civilians grow up taking a bit of a backseat. We got some rudimentary lessons, but mostly they were waiting to see if we’d develop into ninja or not. I tested positive at six, when I was sent to the ninja Academy. I was so scared, leaving all my civilian friends behind. I was a bit of a late bloomer.”

“Late at six years old?”

“I was tested at three.” Naruto said. “Too young to get into the Academy, but they made sure I could enrol as soon as possible.”

“And is the Academy as scary as they say? We heard in Water country, ninja cannot graduate until they kill a classmate.”

“They abolished that practice years ago. And Konoha’s Academy has never been like that. We mostly learn from books.”

“I suppose it can’t be so different from my schooling.”

“Except for the big theatre providing a large part of the material.”

“Oh yeah, I guess you guys don’t have it set up like that. Hey, if you don’t mind, do you think you could show me some ninja techniques?”

“You’re curious?”

“Ever since I was a kid. I always hoped I’d follow in my ancestor’s footsteps.”

“Well, we should find something to kill the time anyway.” Naruto said. “I’ll work some more on the shunshin.”

“Actually, about that Naruto, I was thinking on how to help you with the theory behind it.”

“You mean all the complicated stuff that I don’t understand?”

“Yeah.” Sakura said. “I’ll work on a lesson plan, but you’ll probably be more productive trying something else in the meantime. And since we have the carpenter here…”

Naruto lit up. “You think he could help me try out the carpentry techniques?”

“Oh gee.” Uddo rubbed the back of his head. “I only know the theory.”

“That’s fine. Anything you could tell me would help a lot.”

“And I’m curious too.” Sakura said. The three of them settled into a corner of the room.

“It’s a deal. You show me some jutsu after and I’ll help with some carpentry techniques. I’m told the hardest part is manifesting the chakra. I suppose your ninja training will be a great help with that already. You’ll need to get a solid base going around your hand.”

Naruto held out his hand and let the familiar technique take shape.

Uddo gasped. “I can’t believe it. That’s exactly how grandfather used to do it.”

Sakura held out her hand and concentrated. With Naruto to copy, she had a pretty good idea how it was done. A self-reinforcing pattern of opposing chakra types tied into the main chakra points. She cheated off Naruto’s technique. “This seems pretty stable. I’m not sure how it’s supposed to do any damage though.”

“Well, it receives its effects through moving.”

“But that would destabilise the construct.” Sakura said. “With explosive consequences.”

Naruto’s cheeks flushed. Sakura was always the type to realise that kind of stuff without having to experience it. “So how would you move it without destabilising it?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Sakura said.

“Apparently my ancestors figured something out. You can’t move the chakra construct, but you can teleport the energy.”

Sakura grimaced. “That wouldn’t do a lot.”

But Naruto had a feeling he had heard that before. Sora had carved the stone behind the waterfall with a significantly more powerful version of this technique. It had come so natural to him that he hardly thought about it anymore.

Naruto looked at his hand and tried to place the weird sensations that had come with Sora’s execution. Calling it teleportation was a way to describe it, and it helped Naruto understand it a little better, but it did not fully convey what it entailed. He teleported chakra, but he was also constantly reinforcing the construct.

Naruto tried. And the blue haze around his hand started moving very slowly.

“How does that even work?” Sakura asked in amazement. She squinted her eyes at what Naruto was doing. “Oh. Teleportation. I get it now. You’re only moving the positive chakra. Then the imbalance makes it move by itself. Anything in the way gets cut up.”

Sakura’s haze started moving too, slowly at first but quickly spinning faster and faster. She brought her hand down on an empty board. The indent was only half an inch deep, but it moved quickly and easily through the material.

“Naruto, it’s like a repeated Kawarimi.”

That was why it had been so familiar. Like a replacement jutsu, except broken and twisted up into a miniature versions. Once the similarity was pointed out to him, it was easy to adjust his technique. His own chakra haze sped up as well as he got a hand at it. He tried his hand at Sakura’s board. He had more trouble making it take effect, but when it did it went clean through the material.

“I can’t believe how quickly you picked it up.” Uddo said. “The rest is just practice. A bigger radius makes for deeper cuts, but it becomes thicker too and costs more chakra. The faster it moves, the more easily you can make cuts with thinner lines. We’ve had clan leaders mastering either or sometimes even both.”

“Thank you for helping us.” Sakura said.

“Yeah.” Naruto said. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just glad to see it again. After my grandfather passed away, there’s been nobody in the village who can do the old carpentry techniques. I’d appreciate it though if you don’t share it too publicly. We’re still holding out hope another Kobayashi is born with the gift. It’d be a shame if his clan couldn’t give him any special backing for his stay in Konoha.”

“We won’t tell anyone.”

They worked another hour together. The carpenter was able to correct their flaws and helped them get through when they got stuck on how to improve it further. They happily showed off the Academy staple techniques for him. They refrained from demonstrating the Henge technique though.

Finally, the clerics gave the signal and it was time for the testing to start.

Mostly it was families who were ushered into the room together. At least one parent with one or multiple children. The very youngest were easy to deal with. They hardly had a clue what was going on.

Sakura had tried several times to show Naruto how to perform the test, but to no avail. His chakra reserves were too big for a small jolt and his control too weak to get a good reading on the results.

It hardly mattered though. Sakura took on most of the testing. Sasuke helped when there were too many people for her to handle. Once or twice Kakashi had to step in, but that was in a real pinch. It was taking the clerics longer to process each citizen than it took Sakura to test them.

Kakashi had advised Naruto not to try too much chakra training around the civilians. That only left sitting around with their sensei.

“What was the sense you got of Kimiko-san?” Naruto asked.

“She seems to care a great deal about the theatre and about getting us out of town as quickly as possible.”

“Which doesn’t say very much.”

“No. Most villagers in this town would rather see us gone.”

“She seems really intense. I wonder how she got so close to a boy like Baki.”

“He seemed nice enough.”

“Yeah, but also the opposite of intense.”

“I suppose Baki’s like you. You may act like a goofball sometimes, but you’re a competent ninja and you have earned your way here by being very good at what you do.”

“He did let it slip about the party. You think she would have mentioned it by herself?”

“She did not want us finding out.” Kakashi said. “Which makes me curious what they’ll be doing.”

“It sounded like quite the fancy party too. A little like the Watanabi’s family function.”

“Too formal for my taste.”

Naruto shrugged. “Best party I’ve been to.”

Kakashi lowered his pervert book a little to get a better look at Naruto. “How many parties have you been to?”

“It’s always a party when I’m there, sensei.” Naruto said easily.

“Right. But how many really?”

“Well, I guess that was my first.”

“Like I thought. Do you deliberately evade questions like these?”

Naruto shuffled uneasily. “I just don’t like it when people make me feel different. Reminds me that I grew up different from the other kids. It’s frustrating.”

“I understand. But I still think you should try to be a little bit more honest with us. We don’t mean any harm and it’s okay to acknowledge it was hard sometimes.”

“That’s easy to say, sensei. But I just want to be treated like a normal kid. I guess you wouldn’t know what that’s like.”

“Ma, did you know I grew up without parents too?”

“You did?”

“Yeah. My mother died giving birth to me. My father passed away when I was little. I was already a ninja and lived by myself with the occasional help from my jounin instructor. I managed, but it was still rough to live without my father.”

“Wasn’t he the white fang?”

“He was. Known throughout the country as the greatest ninja in the war, second only to Konoha’s yellow flash.”

“Was he killed on a mission?”

“No.” Kakashi said. “He took his own life.”

Naruto flinched. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s not something I much like to talk about.” Kakashi said. “He had made an unpopular decision during a mission that cost Konoha dearly. The village blamed him and shunned him. My father was unable to stand the criticism.”

“He gave up and left you by yourself.” Naruto said. “He should not have done that.”

“But he did. I like to think I made my peace with it many years ago, but it seems it was not quite so simple. It’s been on my mind a lot since we got here. But yes, I do know what it is like to wish to be normal when you’re not.”

Naruto fiddled with his thumbs. “I like our team. I don’t want to be too much of a bother.”

“We’re your friends. It bothers us more when you try to keep up appearances.” His facial expression changed rapidly. He looked around the room, making sure they were mostly out of sight. “Can you make a clone without getting noticed?”

“Course. Why?”

“Meet me in the back alley with a Henge.”

Naruto gathered up his chakra. Making clones was like breathing for him. He had done it so often that it hardly required conscious thought. It was more difficult to combine it with a Henge, but not by much. The clone stayed behind with Kakashi’s clone, while Naruto slipped unnoticed away.

In the alley, he found Kakashi in a transformation to look like the mother from the Kobayashi family they had impersonated before. Without saying a word, he joined her side in the disguise of her child and they passed into the street together.

It was only when nobody was around that Kakashi explained what was going on. “Most of the mission log is a lost cause. It would take months to decipher, which was probably the intention. It was the other notes, about the fake trade proposals, that provided a bigger clue.”

“Was there a code hidden in those?”

“Not that I could tell.” Kakashi said. “But there was something buried. Akira must have noticed it as well. A discrepancy that only has one explanation.”

A group of people joined them and they were unable to continue their conversation. There was little need though, as they quickly reached the Kobayashi family’s part of town and knocked on the door of a familiar house.

“You again?” Mai said, as soon as she realised who they were. She pulled them inside and closed the door behind them. “Unless you found out something about Naoko’s death, I don’t think you should be here.”

“I think we should.” Kakashi said. “Seeing as you’ve been lying to us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“See, we know Naoko was coming into large sums of money. We know he had large stocks of cypress wood to sell. Your family thinks he had a secret grove inside of the village. Some of the money he earned, he used to fund missions with Konoha. He was spending it on ninja clearing out bandits outside of the village. You said this was his way of giving back to the community.”

“That’s right.”

“He got discounts from Konoha too. Except that we have found records of your son’s big sales. They did not go unnoticed by the rest of your family after all. Konoha’s first missions in this region were seven months ago. Naoko’s first big sale was a few days after the last mission wrapped up. That pattern repeats. Every time he hired Konoha to clear out bandits, he would make big sales just a few days after they were done. There is no grove inside the village. Naoko got his wood from the wild forests once he knew it was safe to harvest and transport the wood.”

The woman was silent. “I did not know about that.”

“You must have.” Kakashi said. “You knew he was in contact with Konoha. You handled a lot of his business. And you made sure to avoid the subject last we were here.”

She flinched. “It was not a big deal. We paid Konoha the money for the missions. What does it matter that we profited from it as well? The bandits are still taken care of. It’s still better for the village.”

“It matters because you broke trust with Konoha. It matters because you acted illegally. You could get in trouble with your village government for contacting Konoha ninja if you acted out of benevolence. You could get arrested, or worse, for contacting Konoha ninja out of greed.”

“You could have been honest.” Naruto said. “Told Konoha what was going on.”

“You never would have helped.” Mai said, dropping all pretence. She looked at the Konoha ninja with disgust. “You were waiting for people from this helpless village to come begging on their knees for mighty ninja to come save us. You think you’re so important that the world can’t live without you. We can. We are. Don’t blame us for exploiting your own inflated egos.”

“Nice speech.” Kakashi asked. “Did you give it to Akira before you killed him?”

The colour drained from her face. She seemed to realise she was in front of an elite jounin. “I had nothing to do with that.” She said.

“He knew you were cheating the system. He confronted you and you got lucky enough to hurt him.”

“No. That’s not true. If he figured it out like you said, he didn’t mention it to me.”

“He must have asked you questions.”

“No. He gave his reports on Naoko’s death and that was the extend of our interactions.”

Naruto shook his head sadly. “You said we were indebted to you. That we had ruined the peace in your village. But you knew exactly what you were getting into.”

“Naoko wanted to make some money. He wanted to get close to the main family. We had such a bright future together until Konoha got involved. He just wanted to make me happy.”

“He wanted to leave you.” Naruto said.

Mai froze. “What?”

“That’s why he needed the money. He gambled with most of what he had. He just needed to get lucky once and he would be able to flee to Konoha with his girlfriend.”

“He didn’t have a girlfriend.” The woman said. “The family had not picked one for him yet.”

“And we already know how deeply Naoko cared about his family’s long-held traditions.” Kakashi said.

She shook her head. “He was a rebel, but he would not have gotten involved with somebody without me knowing it. It’s not possible. He spent every day with me.”

“And the evenings?”

“Drinking with friends.” She said. “He only hanged around with other guys.”

“He did more than hang out with them.” Naruto said. “He had many boyfriends, until he met his girlfriend.”

“You’re lying. I’m positive.”

“We spoke to many witnesses. You can check yourself with just one quick trip to the brick district.” Kakashi said. “But you knew that already, didn’t you? He was an embarrassment for you and you tried to make him stop. When he wouldn’t, what better way to preserve his honour than by faking his suicide?”

“No!” Her fist smashed against the wall. “I’m the one who called you all in. Why would I do that if I had anything to do with it?”

“You knew Konoha would be suspicious. By calling Konoha yourself, you still had a chance to carry on the deal. This time by dealing with Akira in person. You just did not count on him finding out you were responsible for Naoko’s death.”

“I couldn’t continue without my son.” She said. “Going into the woods was dangerous enough for him. I wouldn’t dare it by myself. The moment he died, there was no way for me to carry on the arrangement.”

“You had gotten enough out of it then.” Kakashi said, a bit more desperately. “He was threatening to expose you by fleeing away. The town would look into it.”

“If I had really wanted to do that, my timing could not have been worse.” She retrieved a letter from her desk. “We were in the middle of setting up a bigger deal. There was a danger of others figuring it out, but he ignored the risks. He convinced me to participate. I thought he just wanted to up the rewards. But if you’re saying he was planning to leave… I suppose the gains would have done it.”

“How big a deal are we talking here?” Kakashi asked, looking at the letter draft. “This is a request to Konoha to clear… three large areas in succession? That would have cost him a pretty penny.”

“He assured me he had secured the funds from an investor. He had entrusted a small crew to help him. And he had the buyers all lined up.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this?”

“I wanted you to look into his death. Like I said. This had nothing to do with it and would have just made you mad.”

“We’re mad all right.” Kakashi said. “Keeping this from us… keeping it from Akira. Any of these people could hold a grudge.”

“Naoko trusted them.”

“Just one of them needed to find out he was hiring ninja. Just one of them needed to hear about his plans to leave the village. Or just one needed to be greedy enough to sabotage the mission and get more money out of it for themselves. Who were these people?”

“He didn’t tell me.” She said. “He was serious about keeping everything contained.”

“What about the buyers?”

“All people who had been asking for wood for weeks. They did not know they were getting a delivery at the same time. Well, there was one surprise addition. Our Hime needed a large amount of cypress wood for a new play she was working on.”

“Watanabe Kimiko was part of the deal?” Kakashi asked. “Does she trade in wood often?”

“Usually she has her carpenters deal with it. That’s why her name jumped out to me. That, and the boon to our reputation once we could tell people we once again had made a deal with her directly. She placed an order two months ago as well. Again for a very large amount.”

“What do you suppose she used it for?”

“The theatre is always in need of good lumber.” She said. “I would assume she made them into backgrounds.”

Kakashi shook his head. “We went on a tour and saw the storage. None of the newest additions were made from cypress. We have also discovered evidence that suggests her grandmother was involved in framing at least two suicides.”

The woman gasped. “First you accuse me, and now our royal line? The Watanabe family has been nothing but kind to this village. Who could you possibly think Kemeko-sama manipulated?”

“Her father.” Naruto said. “We don’t know why, but we think she tossed his corpse off the cliff’s edge by Lover’s Rock.”

She hesitated.

“His death was suspicious, am I right?” Naruto pressed.

She sighed and nodded.

“Do you know anything about him?”

“Only from the stories I was told. Nothing more.” She said. “He was the town’s famous playwright. He married a woman and they had Kemeko-san together. After she died, he committed suicide a little later. He was a nice man according to all accounts.”

“How did his death affect Kemeko?”

“They say she was recused and in mourning for weeks. After that, she took over running the theatre by herself. Even at that young age, she was strong and determined. But they think having to work so hard at that young an age is what made her catch the sickness.”

“Her sickness was mentioned to us before. What is it exactly?” Kakashi asked.

“Hard to tell. Our doctors don’t know what it is yet. It manifests in different ways in different children and seems to be somewhat genetic. The children are weak and bedridden during their youth and fall ill later in their lives as well.”

“But Kemeko wasn’t affected as a child?”

“No. She had her first run-in when she got pregnant. She miscarried and almost died herself. When she became with child again, she made sure to rest to give her body as much energy as possible to focus on the pregnancy. It worked and she bore a daughter. But before even her first birthday could be celebrated, both the child and Kemeko’s husband got ill. He did not survive and the child was raised fully under her care. The child was not even schooled outside of her home. She did not go outside much at all, until her eighteenth birthday when she was introduced to the village. Her mother had fallen ill around the same time. We still don’t know if she was really ready to face the world, or whether she had stoically stepped forward to give her mother a chance to rest.”

“And Kimiko was raised the same way?”

“It’s worked for the Watanabe family. After all the fatality, they are no longer taking any chances.”

“I wonder what they are being taught, so long away from the world.” Kakashi said. “That is a lot of time to indoctrinate somebody. Have you seen Kimiko’s daughter recently?”

“Not for a long time. After young Kukiko was born, Kimiko showed off her new daughter to anyone who would see her. The sickness took hold after a few months. Our village’s doctor diagnosed her and since then she’s kept in her room and taken care of.”

“Nobody’s seen her since?”

“Some of the village’s elite get to see her, but it’s a rare privilege. Everyone’s speculating about her debut though. Both Kimiko and her mother had distinct fashion styles. Not that I can blame them. It’s hard to step out of your parents’ shadows as a child. Even more so for someone as famous as our Princesses. Kukiko will have large shoes to fill.”

“I would like to have a word with her.” Kakashi said. “If Kemeko really faked suicides like in your dreams, there’s a chance she taught her daughter how to do it, who in turn taught Kimiko. If that’s the case, my money’s good that she taught young Kukiko the same skills.”

“How would we even get to her?”

“It seems we’ll be attending that party of hers tonight after all.”

“Are you sure that’s smart?” Naruto asked. “She’s seen through my henge before.”

“She was paying attention to us when she managed it. This time, we’re just random strangers. We just need to get into the doors and find a way to Kukiko’s bedroom without getting too close to our main suspect.”

“Do you even know anything about where her bedroom would be?”

“If I did, where would be the challenge?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter posted Thursday, December 5th. We're nearing the end.


	7. Dark side of the moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team 7 practices the noble art of home invasion, Kakashi wants to test a theory and Naruto has more dreams.

Naruto and Kakashi did not run into any problems going back to the inn. They touched base with Sakura and Sasuke before all four of them snuck out together. They took on the appearance of the traders they had also used for the Kobayashi family function.

It was easier to get in than they had thought. They stole an invitation from somebody who was waiting in the back of the line and hid in a nearby building as they copied it. The original was slipped back with the guest before they could realise it had disappeared. They joined the line with invitations in hand. The theatre was large enough that they could hang back amongst themselves without having to talk to too many people, which made it a lot easier to keep a low profile.

The only problem was that the amount of people around kept them from slipping into the backstage area that led to the residential part of the building. They tried several times to think of a distraction, but it was either too subtle to draw the eye of the whole crowd, or too flashy and would draw too much attention to them.

When finally the doors to the stage room opened, they saw their chance. They lingered back and got ready to slip through the door.

Kakashi was about to open it, when it was opened for him. With the practiced ease of a jounin, he casually masked his grab and moved towards the stage room with the other guests. The rest of Team 7 followed his lead. They made sure to take a seat in the back. The doors closed behind them.

A small gong quieted the room and made sure all eyes were on Kimiko as she entered the room. She wore another stunning red kimono. “I would like to welcome you all here tonight. It means a lot to me that so many of you still remember my grandmother and are willing to honour her name. As you know, I almost cancelled this event when we heard two days ago that Konoha ninja had come to the village.”

There was whispering all around the room. There was disapproval and a sense of contempt filtering through. The gong sounded again after Kimiko gave the signal to one of her assistants.

“Shigandan is and remains a village free from the tyranny of ninja rule. My grandmother saw the worth of this village and negotiated our freedom. We will not let anything take that freedom away from us. My grandmother’s memorial night has become one of this village’s proud traditions and one that I refuse to let die no matter how close Konoha is.”

The crowd started whispering again. This time there was more support as they seemed to support their princess. She did not let the gong be sounded this time, instead standing proudly in watch over the room, taking it all in. They quieted in respect by themselves given time.

“Tonight, you see again the play that was written by my grandmother. To remind you why Konoha is a poisonous apple. To remind you why we should not make deals with ninja. And to remind you why we are a better village as long as we stay apart from the rest of the world. Thank you.”

The lights dimmed and actors started moving around on the stage. Kakashi signalled his kids to move away slowly. The people around them were focussed on the stage so they paid little mind to Team 7 as they stood up and backed away.

“But why would you want to be a ninja, Sora? Aren’t you afraid of the dragon?”

Naruto looked back. The background to the stage was the one they had made in his dreams.

“Why wouldn’t I want to be a ninja?” The other actor exclaimed. “There’s adventure and excitement. And I’ll get strong enough to help people, Soka. I’ll never allow what happened to my mom and dad to happen to anyone else.”

Naruto felt a gentle tug on his arm. He let himself be pulled along out of the room.

“Naruto, you need to focus.”

“But…”

“I know.” Sasuke said. “But we can get a copy of that play anytime. This might be the only moment we will have to look into Kimiko’s daughter.”

“Right.” Naruto shook off the weird sense he got whenever he heard Sora’s and Soka’s names. “Let’s go.”

They got into the side hall and moved away from the stage room where all the activity was. Through winding passageways, they finally made their way to a large locked door. Kakashi kneeled in front of it and inserted lockpicking tools.

A minute passed by without any progress. That was unusual. Kakashi usually unlocked doors like he had the actual key in hand. Team 7 had never seen him take more than five seconds.

“What’s wrong?” Sakura asked.

“It’s a tricky lock.” Kakashi said. “There seems to be an additional security measure that I can’t figure out. Can you try it?”

“I’ve never done this.”

“But you’ve read about it, right?” Kakashi handed her the tools. “I need you to use the chakra sensing.”

“I can try, but there’s no guarantee it will work.”

“Naruto, Sasuke, check to see if there’s another way in. Leave a clone in case we need to get in touch with you.”

They nodded and circled around. They had already checked the outside and they had confirmed there were no windows or additional doors other than this one. They checked all the walls connecting to the Watanabe residence, but there were no weaknesses. All the walls were well maintained and heavily reinforced.

They had to report back with no success. Sakura was still poking the tools inside of the lock, sweat on her forehead.

“I really wonder what her physical key looks like.” Sakura said, frantically attempting to get further into the lock. She seemed to have made more progress than Kakashi though. “I can’t even describe what I’m sensing. It’s very clear she does not want anyone getting inside of here.”

“Do you think you’ll get through in time?”

“Maybe?” She said. “Every time I think I’ve got it, the next pin is harder than the last.”

“Try your best. There are no other options, unless we are willing to tear through one of the walls.”

Kakashi shook his head. “If she went through so much trouble with the door, the walls will be worse. We won’t get through without making enough noise to get half the village checking us out.”

“This does not seem like her.” Naruto said.

Sasuke disagreed. “She’s exactly the kind of person to protect her secrets excessively.”

“No, I mean she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would live somewhere without any other ways of getting out of the house. We already know she was making deals with Naoko without any of the other villagers knowing. She has her fingers in every pot. How does she get out when she doesn’t want to be noticed?”

Sasuke looked around. “These hallways are too secure. We didn’t find a single weak spot where she could slip out. Even if she did, she would have to go through the theatre.”

“No matter how quiet she is, she’d risk being seen every time she went out.” Kakashi said.

Sasuke sighed. “You’re right. She must have some other way to get to the village. Do you think there’s something on the outside walls we’ve missed?”

Kakashi shook his head. “We double checked. I even went on the roof. There was a latch there, but it was bolted shut from the inside. As sturdy as the walls themselves.”

“But she could get out that way?”

“In theory. But the walls are steep. She’d have no way to leave, unless she was able to fly away.”

Naruto gasped. “She’s not the crane. She’s the shark. We need to get to the basement.”

“The background storage? You think it’s connected to her house?”

“It would make sense.”

“Go check it out with Sasuke.” Kakashi said. “We’ll keep trying this way.”

Naruto led the way to the storage in the lower level. It was hard to navigate between all the wooden fixtures, but they slowly made their way deeper into the room. They reached a dead end, right under the place of the residential area. It was hard to see so far from any light source, but a makeshift lantern solved that problem.

“If there’s any secret entrance, it would be somewhere around here.” Sasuke said.

Naruto examined the wall closely. It seemed familiar. From a hunch, he walked the length of the wall until he reached a corner. He twisted a mounted light fixture and it made a panel drop out. “Sasuke. Over here.”

The passageway was narrow and only a few feet high. It was exactly like the room Sora and Soka used to hide out. Naruto crawled in. There was barely enough room for his shoulders to pass through. It was dark and hard to make out anything more than general shapes. He bumped his head before he realised he had reached the end.

“How do we go on?” Sasuke asked softly. He was right behind Naruto.

Naruto closed his eyes. He was so close to remembering. He turned around so he was on his back.

“Naruto?”

“Sora and Soka had to be so quiet. There was whispering in the other room so they could not go back that way. But they had to find a way out.”

“What did they do?”

Naruto had so much trouble remembering. It had just been a fleeting thought in the dreams. He grimaced. “I can’t…”

Sasuke crawled on top of Naruto, no doubt to look for himself. But then his hands were on Naruto’s face and his lips were inches from Naruto’s. “What did we do, Sora?”

Naruto reached for a wall and pulled a hidden lever. A door popped open and let them out. Sasuke went first.

“You remembered.” Sasuke said.

“Couldn’t let you cramp up like that, Soka.” Naruto said. He looked around at the storage room they had entered. Barrels lined the walls and many shelves stood between them and a stairway leading up. This had to be the Watanabe residential cellar.

“What did we do next?”

“We waited.” Naruto looked around. He approached a wall and tapped it. “This wasn’t here then. There was a glowing white stone and it looked pretty. It’s also where…” Naruto shook his head. He stumbled and Sasuke had to catch him. “That was very weird.”

“You’re back to me?”

“I don’t think I can do that again. Not without collapsing.”

“The line is blurring between your dreams and reality.” Sasuke said. “You need to be careful with this.”

“Try not to need it.” Naruto looked around the room. “How much food is she keeping here?

“She’s stocked enough to hole up for months.” Sasuke said. “She seems to be preparing for something.”

“No.” Naruto pointed at a few barrels. “These ones are all in use and they appear to be the oldest here. I think she just continuously keeps this all here in case something happens.”

“She’s more paranoid than a ninja.” Sasuke said.

They moved upstairs quietly, coming into a large kitchen. Pots and pans hanged pristine against the wall, with only the barest of signs they had ever been used. They moved through an unlocked kitchen door into a clean and tidy hallway. At the end of the hallway was the other side of the big door. They could hear Sakura fiddling with it.

“We’re through.” Sasuke whispered through the door.

The fiddling stopped for a second. “Any way to open it from that side?”

Sasuke looked around but could not find anything. “We’d need a key. How far away from cracking it are you?”

“Still too far.” She sighed. “Tell us how you got through.”

They described the secret entrance and heard the two ninja move out. It would take them a while to get there. Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke checked out the living room. It was the first room from the main entrance and it was clearly intended to entertain guests. It was well maintained and featured many places where they could sit and be served.

Wooden sculptures were the main decoration, but there were some flowers set around as well. Another door led into the kitchen. It seemed to be locked.

Opposite of the living room was a large study. There were several bookcases with borrowed books from the library. A desk held many scribblings and notes. Somehow, despite the clutter and haphazard way everything was spread out, it made the desk look more professional. Naruto highly suspected Kimiko had arranged the chaos.

Nothing on the notes held anything useful for them. It was all random lines and quotes. Numbers that were devoid of context.

“Wait. This is a cypher.” Sasuke said, pointing to one paper. “She practices cryptography.”

“How complicated is it?”

“Hard to tell from just the one sentence.” Sasuke said. “This might be why Akira was so careful with his mission log.”

Kakashi and Sakura entered the kitchen and met up with the rest of the team. They softly moved up the stairway, using chakra to dampen their footsteps. There were three rooms. The first had no lock and appeared to contain a bathroom. The second had a lock, which Kakashi was able to pick in just two seconds.

It was Kimiko’s bedroom.

“She has a lot of make-up.” Sakura noted, looking over a bedroom mirror with many little containers concentrated around it. “I had not realised she was using so much.”

“If she can’t use a henge, she might be disguising herself like this.” Sasuke noted. “Is there anything else?”

There was a closet in the room, which held many different red kimono and clothes. Kimiko clearly had a favourite colour.

They went to the last room. Strangely, the lock was harder than the master bedroom’s. But nothing as complicated as the front door. Kakashi got through within ten seconds. It was a child’s bedroom. In the middle was a bed, with curtains drawn around it.

“Don’t be frightened, Kukiko-chan.” Sakura said. She took a step into the room, holding the lantern. “We just want to ask you some questions.”

The child remained motionless.

“I’m going to step a little closer, okay?” Sakura took a few steps towards the bed. She was slow and made sure to be as non-threatening as she could. “No…” She took the last steps quickly and drew back the curtain.

“What is it?”

“There’s nobody here.” Sakura said. “It’s a puppet.”

In the bed was a wooden puppet. The features were accurate enough that it was hard to notice unless you got too close. It was painted realistically and was wearing real clothes.

“I don’t understand.” Naruto said. “Then where’s Kukiko?”

“Do you think Kimiko knew we were coming and brought her someplace else?”

“Where would it be safer than here?” Sasuke asked. “And Kukiko is said to be too weak to travel.”

Sakura took a closer look at the puppet. “There are some rudimentary chakra enhancers on this thing. It’s like it could be controlled by a ninja.”

“Do you think Kimiko could be one of us?” Naruto asked.

“It would explain a few things.” Kakashi said. “She was never tested as a child because she was sick until late in her life.”

“Such a convenient excuse.” Sakura said. “She learned to be a ninja from her mother behind closed doors and got up to god-knows-what while everyone assumed she was hidden away. She’s teaching Kukiko the same. She could be anywhere in the village.”

“Wouldn’t she stand out?” Naruto asked.

“Not if they can do a henge after all.” Sakura said. “Or even just use their make-up effectively.

“If Kimiko has experience with the henge, it makes it easier to understand how she could see through your disguise, Naruto.” Sasuke said. “If she taught her daughter, there’s no telling where she might be or what she might be doing.”

Naruto frowned. “We know both Naoko and Akira were in a relationship before they died. Do you think Junko and Hiro could have been Kukiko in disguise?”

They all shared looks of discomfort.

“We need to confront Kimiko.” Kakashi said. “There’s no other explanation that makes sense. Not with so much chakra sensitive materials in her house.”

“Won’t she figure out we’ve been to her house? We’d be breaking the treaty.”

“The treaty is fulfilled the moment we find out there is a ninja in the village.” Sasuke said. “If we can prove it, she’s finished.”

“What if she attacks us?” Naruto asked.

“She’s not allowed to.”

“Screw what she’s allowed to do!” Naruto said. “You think she cares? She can start revolution by just sending the word. She has a daughter in the village who will retaliate if we attack her mother.”

“No.” Kakashi said. “No matter how influential that play is supposed to be, it will be tainted if a ninja wrote it.”

“She’ll say we’ve lied.”

“So we need her to be around witnesses when we confront her.”

“Like the party tonight?” Sakura asked.

“Waste not, want not.” Kakashi said.

~*~

They snuck back in just as the play had ended. Kimiko was standing up again and faced the crowd. “I hope my grandmother’s words were able to touch you.”

The crowd applauded.

“Thank you. I’m sure she would have liked the appreciation. My apprentices will soon bring out drinks and refreshments. I invite you all to reflect on the play together and have a word with me if you like.”

“Now that’s something we’ll take you up on.” Kakashi said.

The crowd looked confused, until they dropped their henge in a torrent of white smoke.

“Ninja!” One man gasped. The people closest to them drew back quickly.

“Well this is a surprise.” Kimiko said. “You were not expected and not invited. I warned you what would happen if you exposed yourself like this. Is this the declaration of war?”

“No need to be so dramatic.” Kakashi said. “We’re just here to expose you as a ninja for the whole village.”

There were gasps all around.

“If you’re attempting to confuse my fellow citizens with baseless accusations, you severely underestimate our intellect.”

“You are the smartest person in the village, as far as we’ve been able to tell. If there’s anyone who could hide chakra affinity, it would be you.”

“And why would I possibly do that?”

“You hold a monopoly now on the chakra wielding. All those mysterious deaths in the last sixty years, they’re because you hated the thought of some competition.”

“Now I’ve gone from ninja to mass murderer. I pray you respect your manners.”

“I will apologize profusely if I’m proven wrong. And proving me wrong is simple enough to do. Let us test you for ninja affinity.”

“That’s absurd. No one has been forced to be tested for ninja affinity after their twenty-fifth birthday since the founding of Konoha.”

“Does that mean you refuse a simple test?”

“I refuse you to violate my bodily autonomy, no matter how much you calumniate me. What made you think I would ever agree?”

“The sense that you would not want these lovely people to have any doubts. It’s a simple enough test. We performed it many times today. Why block such an easy way to prove your innocence.”

“It’s just a small test, Hime.” One man said, who sat close to her. “Shut those bastards up, please.”

She looked around and saw many similar sentiments. “You see how easily the ninja manipulate us.” She said. “If it was easy to resist a lure, we would not need yearly reminders.” She turned to Team 7. “I am not yours to command. If you wish to examine me, you must offer something in return.”

“You want money?”

She scoffed. “I have repeatedly said what I want. I want Konoha to leave us alone. If your test proves negative, the yearly tests will end. You will trust us to stay to ourselves.”

“That would be quite an upgrade to the treaty.”

“The treaty has been broken. But I still do not want war. Guarantee me that you will leave us, and I’ll subject to your tests.”

Kakashi hesitated.

Sakura pulled on his sleeve. “You can’t. Not without the Hokage’s permission.”

Kakashi sighed. “I will need to ask my superiors.”

“Where is that Konoha spirit from just minutes ago? You sowed seeds of doubt in this room with your insistence. But suddenly, now that being wrong would cost you, you back down like meek little lambs.” Kimiko turned to the audience. “See how sure these ninja are of their case?”

“I can get permission within the hour.” Kakashi said.

“You are a liar, Hatake Kakashi.” She said. “We do not have many resources here, but we have enough to know that what I am asking is exactly the kind of thing a jounin has offered other villages in the past. ”

“That was in extraordinary circumstances.”

“And this isn’t extraordinary? You accuse independent commoners with risks of diplomatic repercussions often, Kakashi-san?” She smirked. “Show us your true colours. Either admit you are unsure and leave me unmolested, or give me your promise and let us be done with this.”

“Don’t...” sakura said.

But Kakashi had made up his mind. “You’re bluffing to get out of this. I’m calling you out on it. I accept your terms.”

“Fine.” She said undoing her Kimono and exposing her undershirt. “Then let us be done with this charade.”

Sakura moved closer and put two hands on her arm. The woman who had seemed so intimidating, looked exposed and vulnerable. With a gentle jolt, Sakura checked the pathways. Nothing came out of her arm.

She shook her head to Kakashi.

“That’s impossible.” Kakashi said. He moved closer to redo the test. Naruto and Sasuke followed behind him. No telling what these people would do.

Kakashi put his hands on her arm. But there was no denying the results. “But your daughter…”

Her skin went white as she looked at Team 7. “You invaded my home?”

The audience that had already turned on the ninja, now seemed to be turning hostile.

“You have overstayed your welcome, ninja of Konoha. You will leave within the hour.” She said. She had a bit of trouble donning her robe again. Naruto stepped up and assisted her.

She seemed surprised and her features softened as she looked over the boy who had just helped her. “Thank you. It seems my anger got the best of me and I forgot the time. It’s too dark to start your travel and I will not let anyone say we are inhospitable. Return to the inn and rest your heads. Maybe that will cure you of some of these delusions and leave you safer on the road in the morning.”

They turned tail and walked away.

~*~

Kakashi punched the wall. “We failed Akira. We were supposed to catch his killer.”

“I don’t understand. If she’s not a ninja, why all the secrecy?” Sakura said.

“Is there any way the test could be wrong?”

“I don’t see how. People can’t control how good they are at manipulating chakra.”

“Not even you, Sakura?” Naruto asked. “Your control is amazing.”

She gave it a deep thought, but she sighed after just a few seconds. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. I suppose it might be possible to divert all your chakra control in a seal, theoretically. But you’d be unable to get it back without your control active.”

“How long would that take?”

“Hours, at the very least. If she really did it, that would mean she did it before we even got there. Or has some kind of method completely unknown to Konoha.”

Sasuke offered Sakura his arm. “Just to be sure.”

Sakura did the same test she had done dozens of times by now. Heat escaped Sasuke’s hand just like it had done when they had travelled to Shigandan. “It’s less heat than before.”

“You’re exhausted from performing it all day.” Sasuke said.

“I guess.” Sakura said, but she seemed unsure.

“What are you thinking?” Sasuke asked.

“This is a chakra affinity test. It’s not supposed to become weaker. What if… what if it isn’t her hiding her affinity? What if it is something that’s hiding everyone’s?”

“What could do that?”

Sakura sighed. “Nothing I know of.”

“So we’re back to square one. It just doesn’t make sense.” Kakashi repeated. “She has to be a ninja. But we have no way to prove it and we end up questioning everything.”

“What next?” Naruto asked. “It can’t be over yet.”

“Your dreams.” Sasuke said. “We can get a clue from there.”

“Perhaps.” Kakashi said. “But any clue you get, we can’t investigate.”

“Konoha can figure it out now.” Sakura said. “It’s out of our hands. Unless you have any more ideas?”

Kakashi punched the wall again.

~*~

They had little energy to study or hang around. They retreated into their own rooms as soon as they got to the inn. They got ready for bed with a gloom in the air and went to settle into their futons.

“I don’t want you to freak out.” Sasuke said.

“What are you talking about, teme?” Naruto was just slipping under the covers. But there was something extra there.

“I picked it up on my way here after the testing. I was very subtle.”

Naruto took a look. Naruto’s eyes went wide and his face turned crimson. That bastard. That absolute bastard.

“You bastard. You absolute bastard.” Naruto hated it the most that he did this where he was unable to fully scream his anger at the boy. Sakura and Kakashi would walk in and the Uchiha’s humiliation would be complete.

“It’ll solve your problem.”

“I’m not a fucking baby.” Naruto hissed. This was what he got for opening up to people. They made fun of him or played pranks. Sasuke had seemed so genuine the day before. That made it hurt all the more.

“I’m serious.”

Naruto wanted to throw it across the room. But it was too soft to cause the damage he wanted to cause and he could not stand to see it out in the open. “You said you didn’t mind helping me. Hah. Just as long as I’ll take this kind of abuse in return, right? I’ll pass. Nobody gets to treat me like this. Nothing is worth it.” He stood up and moved to the door. “I’ll sleep with Kakashi.”

“I wore them half my life.” Sasuke said.

Naruto could not believe that. “What?”

Sasuke was staring at the ceiling. “My parents started ninja training at four years old. I started wetting the bed sometimes after harsh trainings.”

Naruto cautiously sat back down on his futon. “You didn’t say so yesterday.”

“It’s not something I like to talk about. My father was very disappointed.”

“That’s silly. It’s not something you could help.”

Sasuke made a face. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“It is different for me.” Naruto said.

Sasuke sighed, dropping the point. “It was my brother who offered a solution.”

“By giving you...” it was even hard to say.

“Yes. He said… admitting there’s a problem is not the same as giving up.” Sasuke clutched at the futon. “Itachi told me that he still liked to sleep with a stuffed animal on missions. Reminded him of home.”

“You’re saying… if it helps, there’s no problem”

“I had to wear them until I was ten. It’s something that reminded me of Itachi even when I could not stand the thought of him. I don’t think I could have told you any of this a few days ago.”

“What changed?”

Sasuke shrugged. “I don’t know. But it feels like I can tell you this now.”

“Do you miss your brother like you miss your parents?”

“Yes. No. Neither. Knowing he’s still out there and nothing like the brother that gave me piggyback rides… it’s complicated. I want to see my parents, which is impossible. I want to see the brother that cleaned my wounds after a training accident, which is impossible in a different way.”

“That sucks.”

“It does.”

Naruto sighed. “I still wish I’d had someone when I was younger. Had a family member to help me when I first had my accidents. I mean, it’s going to be pretty nice not to have to worry about wet sheets tomorrow.”

“Told you, baka. We’re your family now. And we’ll help you.”

Naruto settled into the futon. He could live with putting that thing on, but like hell he would give his team mate the satisfaction of seeing the process.

When he was done, Sasuke’s words really sank in. Team 7 was his family now. And he was theirs. “Well, if you want a piggyback ride, I think I owe you several by now.”

~*~

Naruto was in the orphanage. He was frantically going over his lines again. He was the youngest kid with a big role and a lot was riding on him doing his part.

“Are you excited for today?”

Naruto quickly turned around. His ears had not been mistaken. It really was Kakashi.

“S-so much, sir.”

“Please, no need for formalities. What do you think of the play?”

“It’s a lot of fun. I hope I’m any good.”

“I’m hearing great things. I’m also hearing that you’re sneaking into the theatre.”

Naruto’s face felt hot as fire. “I’d never.”

“You know, we were trying to look how you got in, but there wasn’t an obvious flaw in our security. You must have put a lot of effort into coming to see our plays.” Kakashi said. “As far as I’m concerned, anyone who’s willing to put that much work into getting a cultural education, deserves to be let off the hook. Just don’t tell anyone else, okay?”

“I won’t. I haven’t.” Naruto said. “I was afraid you’d catch on if there were too many people along with me.”

“Well, good luck today. I wonder how much you’ve learned from watching us.”

~*~

He was on a stage and all eyes were on him. The words came naturally to him. Even Sakura’s changes were not too bad, even if it had taken him so long to admit it. He moved along the wooden background to draw attention to the fine work that had gone into it. He used it to emphasise his performance.

The show worked so much better now that they had worked together.

Kakashi was in the audience and he smiled.

~*~

“You really shouldn’t have.” Kakashi tried to placate his guests, but his face was red from alcohol and it made it easy to dismiss his modesty.

“It’s the least we can do after such a marvellous production, Watanabe-sama.”

The stone stood in front of them, shiny and at least the size of a small child. The markings on it were intricate and spectacular.

“The shrine we were housing it in has been demolished. Really, you’re doing us a favour by taking it off of our hands. Maybe you can use it in one of your plays?”

“Maybe.” Kakashi smiled, coming closer to run his fingers over the stone. “It’s very pretty.”

“It’s said to be a gift from the gods themselves. A charm for longevity and defence. It was even said to ward of ninja. Utter rubbish of course.”

“I was sorry to hear about the attack.” Sakura said.

The man nodded sadly. “Maybe it will give your family better luck than mine.”

“We’ll put it in storage until I’ve written a play to feature it in.” Kakashi said. “Help me carry it down, Sora?”

Naruto nodded. It was the least he could do for the man he considered his father.

~*~

Kakashi’s corpse was hardly visible from the top of the cliff. It was the moonlight that sometimes broke through the clouds that gave off hints of what they had done to the man.

~*~

Naruto was giggling. Sasuke’s slight stubble was prickling his neck. “Stop it.”

“It’s payback.” Sasuke said, pinning Naruto to the cold wooden floor. “You’re not supposed to tease me on stage.”

“But you look so cute when you’re sneaking glances. How am I supposed to resist?”

“Then don’t look at me.”

“Ah, but then I have to imagine how cute you look and it’s even worse. I’ll want to look, but try to remind myself I should not. You become a forbidden love, my unobtainable obsession.”

“You’re silly.” Sasuke said. “I will continue punishing you.”

Naruto laughed more, between gasps of breath. “Quit it. You don’t know who’ll come by.”

A sharp knock against the wall shut them up. Sasuke looked with terror at his boyfriend. “What was that?” he whispered.

“Come out.” Oh no. Not him. Neither of them wanted to move. “I won’t ask twice.”

Naruto pushed open the panel and stood up. Sasuke followed after much trepidation.

Kakashi looked down on them. “How long has this been going on?”

“Nothing’s going on.” Naruto tried.

“Don’t lie.” He said. “Hisoka-kun, you are needed with the new project. Go help out there.”

“But Sora…”

“Now.” Kakashi said.

Sasuke backed away with lead in his shoes.

“How long has this been going on?”

“A few years.” Naruto said. “We love each other.”

“His family will not stand for it.” Kakashi said. “You must know this.”

“We don’t care about his family. As long as we can be together.”

Kakashi sighed. “The two of you are my best students. This can’t continue like this.”

“But…”

“No.” Kakashi said. “You have to be more careful. Find a place where people won’t overhear you. The world is a dangerous place and it is not very kind to people like us.”

“People like us?” Naruto looked up at Kakashi, but he was looking away. “But you seemed so happy with Kemeko-chan’s mom.”

“She makes me happy. But we do not love each other. That honour was reserved to another. He passed away some years ago, I’m afraid. He tended the local mountain shrine.”

“What mountain shrine?”

“It’s hidden away and not a lot of people visit it. You need to go up the trail by the smith and head towards the river. If you can hear the waterfall, you’re getting close. It’s a place nobody comes and where you can do whatever you want without any interruption. I should know.”

“Thanks, Watanabe-san.”

Naruto was about to leave, when Kakashi put his hand on his shoulder. “Sora, enjoy this as long as you can. You never know when it will end.”

“It won’t end. Sora and I will love each other forever.”

“One of you will die eventually.”

“We’ll love each other even then. Nothing can keep us apart for long.”

Kakashi smiled. “The optimism of youth. You know how my wife passed away. At the time, I would have given anything to keep her from succumbing to her illness. You know the doctors say I’m possibly afflicted the same way. I was so eager to give up my life for her, and now I’m wondering what I can do to keep it.”

“I think that’s only natural. If you don’t keep fighting, that’s giving up. And that’s not the way of Shigandan, now is it?”

“You’re right. And I’m sorry to keep you. Go along. Just be careful. The two of you are like the sons I never had. I don’t want to lose you.”

~*~

They walked through the forest, the corpse on their shoulders. None of them wanted to talk about this. The man they were carrying was a stranger. The man they knew would never have been capable of what this demon had done.

~*~

Kakashi grabbed Sakura’s arm harshly. “Where did you get that ink?”

“F-from the study.” She said. “Was I not supposed to?”

“You had no business taking it!” Kakashi yelled. All around them people stopped working, but Kakashi hardly seemed to notice. “Where is it now?”

“It hurts, otou-san.” She yelped when Kakashi just grasped her tighter. “M-my bedroom!”

He stormed off without saying another word.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. The man had been acting increasingly aggressive the last few weeks. It was unlike him.

The bruises on Sakura’s arm took days to heal.

~*~

Naruto and Sasuke ran through the basement. The scream had come from here somewhere. They could hear heavy breathing. When they followed it, they noticed a wall that had not been there before. It did not line up properly either. They could push it open like a door.

Sakura looked at them, most of her torn clothing covered in blood. She was holding a large rock. Moonlight came through a small window and cast the room in black and white. A polished stone towered over them, splatters of blood covering it from top to bottom.

Kakashi lay on the floor in an ever-increasing pile of blood.

“Help me.” Sakura’s voice cracked and she started crying. She dropped the stone and brought her hands to her face.

~*~

Naruto lay in bed with Sasuke’s head against his chest. They were naked and exhausted. Neither of them were able to sleep very well. His investigation had been troubling.

“I’m going to talk to her.” Naruto said.

“Can’t we just sneak out and go to Konoha like we talked about?”

“No, I have to confront her. Give her a chance to speak her mind.”

“I’m worried you won’t come back.” Sasuke said. “I’m worried she’ll do something.”

“I won’t be jumping off any cliffs.” Naruto smirked.

Sasuke poked him. “Don’t joke about that. I’m serious.”

“Look, you know what I’ve uncovered. It’s not something I can leave. Not with the evidence I have.”

“I don’t know what I’d do if she gets to you.”

“What you always do.” Naruto said. “Put on a smile and party. Serve your sake and help people like us. But she won’t get to me. I’m a trained ninja.”

“Not so loud.” Sasuke said. “You’re supposed to be undercover.”

“Hey, Hiro, if something does happen to me, be careful okay? Don’t get in danger.”

“No promises. If you end up dying, I won’t owe you.”

Naruto reached to the bedside stand and grasped for the figurines. “I made you these.”

“A shark and a crane?”

“The shark’s for you.”

That earned Naruto a punch on his arm. But Sasuke was smiling. “Like your dreams. I’ll never let this go.”

Naruto turned around to kiss Sasuke passionately. “I’ll never stop loving you. When I came here, I found my hero. Let me be your crane and carry you away to the ocean. Together, we’ll soar.”

~*~

Naruto felt the breeze against his skin. It was the top of the cliff. Exactly where he had promised Hiro he would not end up. His eyes were watery. He did not want to do this.

_“Jump.”_

His muscles moved like they were not his own. He so wished he could be like the crane and fly away. Instead, he saw the ground come towards him and there was nothing he could do.

~*~

Naruto woke up with a gasp. “I need to talk to Hiro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter will be posted Thursday, December 12th.


	8. To the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto finds his Hiro and solves all the mysteries.

Sasuke rubbed at his eyes. “What?”

“We need to go talk with Hiro.” Naruto stood up. He looked at confusion at the sheets that were still dry. Until he remembered why and headed straight into the bathroom to clean himself off.

Sasuke followed him. “It’s still the middle of the night. Where are we even going?”

“To see my boyfriend.” Naruto said, already undressed and taking a quick shower.

“And who is your boyfriend?” Sasuke tried, as patiently as possible.

Naruto hesitated for a second. “Akira’s boyfriend.”

“Do you know who he is? Do you know why you have to talk to him?”

“I need to tell him why I jumped. He needs to understand.” Naruto said. He grabbed a towel and dried himself off. He stormed passed Sasuke for the door, but Sasuke grabbed his arm.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Naruto leaned in and made to kiss Sasuke. Sasuke moved his head back.

“I was talking about your clothes.”

Naruto finally slowed down enough to look down at his own naked body. He looked at Sasuke, his teammate whom he had just tried to kiss. He knew his name was Naruto and things were wrong. But he also knew his name was Akira and that he needed to go see his boyfriend, no matter how much his boyfriend tried to stop him.

Naruto pulled his arm loose and went to the closet to put on some clothes. He slid open the door and walked out. If he waited too long, this connection would leave and with it the only chance they had to solve this mystery.

“Naruto, slow down.” Sasuke whispered. He frantically looked around for the soldiers that were guarding them.

Kakashi came out of his room to take a look, just in time to be the distraction needed to keep the guards from noticing Naruto and Sasuke sneaking away. Naruto had just enough presence of mind to leave a clone to explain himself. When Naruto split in two, Sasuke followed the one that slipped onto the rooftops. Naruto knew exactly where he needed to go.

Sasuke tried desperately to keep up without making too much sound. That was especially hard when Naruto was carelessly trekking forward and often displaced roof tiles with his jumps. Sasuke was barely able to catch them and put them back in place without losing his teammate. Naruto kept pulling ahead.

When Sasuke finally caught up, Naruto was already standing in front of the Red Rooster. The front door was locked, but that was no problem for a ninja. He hopped to the window on the second floor with a single leap, the one he knew had a broken lock.

Naruto walked through a hallway he had gone through dozens of times and knocked on the door.

“Henge.” Sasuke whispered, before white smoke overtook him and Sasuke looked like he had the last time they had visited the gay bar.

Naruto tried to listen. He formed the seals, but the image who he was supposed to be was blurry.

“Who are you?” Roki asked. Then he saw Naruto’s headband. “You’re the ninja.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Naruto smiled. “I heard you have a thing for ninja.”

Roki startled. He grasped a kunai from beside the door and held it up. His hands were trembling and it was clear he had never used it.

Naruto winced. He had taught the man better than that.

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Everyone calls you Roki, but it’s short for Hiroki.”

Sasuke picked up quick. “You’re Hiro. Akira’s boyfriend. I know this seems confusing, but my teammate has some kind of connection with his ghost.”

Naruto gave a casual wave and his face was filled with love and adoration. “It’s good to see you, my Hiro.”

The man blinked. He dropped his kunai. He blinked more. “I need a drink. Several drinks.”

~*~

They took a seat at the bar. Roki poured them all a glass and left the bottle on the counter.

“You didn’t mention anything when we were here before.” Sasuke said. “You must have suspected we were ninja, knowing what you know.”

“Kira always warned me that ninja could come after him. I wasn’t to trust anyone.”

Sasuke frowned. “But he must have known Konoha could sent ninja backup.”

He snorted. “Konoha was half the problem. Sure, he worried about foreign ninja, but there was a reason he was closeted. There were some queer ninja who were open about their sexuality. They never survived for long.”

Naruto nodded. “It’s hard to see your friends die around you. Makes you careful.”

“Akira.” Sasuke said. “Can you tell us what happened?”

Naruto concentrated. His expression became fussy. “No.”

“It’s important.”

Naruto held up his hand. “The connection isn’t strong enough. I’m barely hanging on to it as it is.”

Roki stared at the boy that looked half stranger and half like his former lover. “These dreams of yours… is it the orphan boy jumping off the cliff?”

“Yeah. His name was Sora.”

“Kira had the same dreams. But he never experienced what you’re experiencing now. It was just small flashes and nightmares of falling. Over the month he was here, he never got anything more. Until the end at least, but that might have been delirium.”

“What were the final days like?” Sasuke asked.

“He fell ill and was bed-ridden. He was convinced he was being poisoned, so he stopped eating and drinking. It only made him weaker and the illness harder to fight. When he did feel better, he would disappear for hours on end.”

“Did you fear him?”

“Never. But I was afraid for him.” Roki said. “He was a ninja in a village that hates ninja. He was gay and from a village that hates gay people.”

“He told you about his investigation, didn’t he?” Naruto said.

“I was a local informant. That’s the excuse he kept using to see me. He smiled at my jokes and took time off to perform on the stage here with me. I’d never met a foreigner so much into theatrics until him. When things became more serious, he decided he needed to be honest with himself and with me.”

“What had he learned?”

“Not enough. He highly suspected foul play was involved with the suicides. He suspected Kimiko was involved. He was still looking for direct evidence. He thought she was a ninja.”

“We tested her tonight.” Naruto said. “It came up negative.”

“Ah, so you are the cause of the trouble at the theatre. Watanabi’s Memorial celebration is behind locked doors. Hard to get any info. But people were seen leaving in an uproar.”

“I can see why Akira would prize you as an informant.” Sasuke said. “She allowed us to test her, but in return ninja must leave and never return.”

“I see.” Roki poured himself another drink. “It seems that she has won then. It’s everything she wanted.”

“To finish what her grandmother started.” Naruto said. “Keep Konoha away.”

“To divide Shigandan from the rest of the world.” Roki said. “Didn’t you realise she’s financing the bandits around town?”

“Why would she want that?” Sasuke said. “An isolated town.”

“Kira thought she wanted to limit outside influences as much as possible.”

“No.” Sasuke said. “She does not act like somebody who fears outsiders. From the beginning, she has been amused by us. Annoyed, too. But never threatened.”

“Do the bandits profit her?”

“Not as much as increased trade would.”

“Kira thought she might want to be keeping someone from leaving.” Roki said. “He tried to get in touch with Kimiko’s daughter, but she was nowhere to be found.”

“She wasn’t there either when Akira tried?”

“He had managed a formal visit. He had gotten in touch with some very influential people, you know. He met with Kimiko in her front room. He could hear footsteps from the second story of the building. That was as close as he had gotten.”

Sasuke looked the man over, first with his regular eyes and then with Sharingan red. He was reminded of their earlier theory and cursed himself for not checking sooner. He blamed his concern for Naruto. But he still needed to check. He tossed a kunai with lightning speed and nicked the bartender’s arm.

Roki hissed and grabbed at the small trail of blood now running down his arm. “What the hell?”

Sasuke was prepared for retaliation, but not from his side. Naruto tackled him and had a kunai pressed against his throat, ready to cut the skin like Sasuke had done.

“We needed to make sure he wasn’t under a transformation. It was your theory, remember? Hiro and Junko.”

Naruto’s breathing slowed and then he righted himself. “Don’t touch Hiro again.”

“No more need. He’s eliminated as a suspect.” Sasuke sighed. “That just leaves the rest of the village. How sure are we that she actually exists?”

“Everyone saw Kimiko when she was pregnant.” Roki said. He had recovered from the shock somewhat and was trying to bandage himself. The cut was too high, but Naruto soon sat himself next to the man to help. He nodded in gratitude. “She went in public often.”

“A pregnancy can be faked.”

“Not like that. People saw her belly in public events. Our village doctor examined her himself.”

“Did people see the child as well?”

“Yeah.” Naruto said. “We heard from Mai. They saw the baby before it got ill.”

“Kukiko has not been seen in public since. But it was the same for Kimiko. She was hidden away safely until her eighteenth birthday when she directed her first play.”

“Did they come out together?”

“No. Kimiko’s mother was adamant she be judged on her own merit.”

“What are you thinking, Sasuke?”

“I don’t know. I’m starting to doubt everything.”

“She’s not the kind of person to stay childless.” Naruto said. “The Watanabe family has a legacy and its members die young. She married when she was supposed to in order to continue her family line. She isolates Shigandan from the outside, so this village does not change. She wants to keep this going forever.”

“Orochimaru used to make clones, didn’t he? But they had to be grown in vats. If she’s so egocentric that she doesn’t see an alternative…”

“But Orochimaru had the scientific backing of Konoha behind him. How would she pull that off?”

Sasuke ran the list in his head. The space she would need, the knowledge she would require. The sheer resources. Orochimaru had only been able to smuggle all the resources in because it was Konoha and it was the centre of trade for the whole of Fire Country. “She could not.”

Naruto stood up. “We have only one more night. We can figure this out.”

“Kakashi’s probably getting frantic that you ran away.”

“He’ll live.” Naruto said. Then he turned to Roki. “I came here because I needed to speak with you. Akira needed to speak with you.”

“Do you still feel him?”

“It’s fading more and more. But I remember the message. That he loved you. That he jumped to protect you. That he was left no other choice.”

Roki looked miserable and he poured himself another drink. “I… I thought it was my fault. I guess I was right.”

“He knew it would hurt you and for that he was sorry.” Naruto took Roki’s hands in his. “If there had been any other way, he would have found it. He wanted nothing more than to run away with you.”

Roki nodded.

“But now, he needs you to help us. We’re done being indirect. We have only two more leads and we’ll ask you directly. Do you know who Junko was? Do you know how we can find her?”

“Junko was my contact. She sold us the sake that she brewed and taught me how to better mix it with sweeteners.”

“Could she be Kukiko in disguise?”

He shook his head. “I knew her since she was a child. We went to school together. She was there with me when Kimiko showed off her baby infant.”

“Where is she now?”

“She left. After Naoko died, she took her chances and moved to Konoha. It was what Naoko would have wanted, even if he would have wanted her to have more funds to make the journey safer. She’s either in Konoha right now, or she ran into bandits and she’s with Naoko now.”

Naruro cursed. He had wanted to talk to her. Akira was onto something and it all came from his investigation into Naoko’s death. If they had been able to talk to Junko, it would have helped them tremendously.

Sasuke looked at him. “You said there was a second lead.”

“Right. There’s a stone in the Watanabe basement. It’s hidden in another secret room. It’s where Sakura… where Kemeko murdered her father.”

“How would that help us?”

“It’s a stretch. But we should…”

Naruto reached for his forehead. His clone had popped.

~*~

He was trying to explain to Kakashi how he was feeling and why he had to leave. The guards kept interrupting them to ask questions and check up on them. No matter what Kakashi said, it did not keep them away for long.

“I see you are once again disobeying orders.” Kimiko said. She had come upon them without warning, her silent footsteps too stealthy for even a ninja to pick up. “You have no respect at all.”

“Can it.” Kakashi said. “You already won. We’re leaving in the morning. What’s the difference to you?”

“The difference is to you. I know that you have been investigating the death of a trader who had been visiting over the previous month. I have information about his apparent suicide.”

Kakashi stood up straight. “And what is that information?”

She sighed. “You ninja are so rude. No, I will not tell you without anything in return. I wish to know who this trader was. Let us be frank with each other, since we are like to never deal with each other again.”

“What makes you think he was anything more than another trader?”

“You think it’s so hard to read your face.” Kimiko said. “But I can tell when you’re lying. I know there’s more here that is being unsaid. But to share the information, I have two conditions. The first is that you assemble your team. Both of the boys are missing.”

“I’m right here.” Naruto said.

“Clones do not count.” She said simply.

Sakura gasped. “How could you tell? That’s a perfect copy. Even ninja can’t tell the difference.”

“I’m not a ninja.” She said. “The second condition is that we talk somewhere secure. This inn has too many unseen entrances and the walls are too thin. We go to the theatre.”

“Where you hold all the cards.” Kakashi said. “No, it should be somewhere in the open.”

“Near the mountain shrine, then.” Kimiko said. “If we leave now, we’ll arrive within the hour.”

“Fine with me.” Kakashi said. He ignored Sakura’s worried look as he started moving along with the woman.

Naruto’s clone needed to inform the original.

~*~

“Kakashi-sensei is going to the waterfall.” Naruto said. “I think Kimiko is going to harm him.”

“What can she do to a jounin?” Sasuke asked.

“That’s likely what Akira thought, before she made him kill himself.”

“Right. We need to go.” Sasuke made for the front door.

“If anything happens to us, make sure the village knows it was Kimiko’s fault.”

They hurried over rooftops and quickly made it to the mountain shrine. Kimiko was standing in front of it, her hands running over the mistreated wood. Sakura and Kakashi were close to her.

“Did you know it was my family’s duty to maintain this temple? When the last monk died, he left the care to the Watanabe family. I have so many duties to attend to, and so little choice in any of them. I must admit, it has been a pleasure seeing this structure rot.”

“The whole team is here.” Kakashi said. He made sure his genin were close to him. “What is it you wanted to tell us?”

“I really wanted the four of you to just move on.” She said. “All my life I’ve just been trying to live in peace. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone and leave me to write.”

“Is your daughter here as well?” Sakura asked. “Is she the ninja that’s poisoning everyone?”

She sighed. “I’m disappointed. You’re still so far off. You went into my house and you still didn’t figure it out?”

Kakashi remained stoic. “We never entered your residence.”

“How many times must I tell you that you cannot lie to me? I grew up in the theatre, was nourished on a diet of lies. I can smell it from the expression of your face and I can taste it in your voice. You saw the inside of my house. You saw my daughter’s bedroom.”

“She’s never in there when people visit.” Sakura said. “You use ninja string to control the puppet and make them think she’s really there.”

“The obvious conclusion.” She said. “This trader who was visiting. He was a ninja, was he not?”

“Yes.” Kakashi said.

“Finally not a lie. You never came here to test the village. You came here to investigate his death.”

“We did.” Kakashi said. “Where is your daughter now?”

She sighed again. “The wrong question to ask.”

“Then a better one. Did you know Akira was a ninja when you killed him?”

“I suspected it.” She said. “But I killed him because he was getting in the way.”

Sakura gasped. Kakashi grabbed a kunai and started making his way towards her. “You think you have no reason to fear us. But you killed my friend.”

She yawned.

Kakashi disappeared from sight. A perfect shunshin left him standing behind her, the kunai pressed against her neck and Kakashi’s arm around her, keeping her in place. “You will jump off that cliff tonight, like you made Akira jump.”

“No.” She said. “That’s not what’s going to happen.” She put her hand on Kakashi’s and with a small pinch, she broke every bone in the jounin’s hand.

Kakashi tried to pull back, but her grip was strong. With a few quick movements she pulled his arm behind his back and pinned him to the ground, using her weight to keep him there.

The three genin immediately took positions around her. They threw kunai and shuriken as they ran. Each one of the projectiles was stopped in the air, dropping to the ground as they hit an invisible wall surrounding her.

“What the hell do you want?” Naruto shouted out.

“Fine, let’s get to the point.” She said. As she looked at the three genin in turn, they felt a crash of exhaustion come over them. Sakura gasped. Sasuke staggered. Naruto fell to the ground unconscious.

~*~

_“You’ve been acting strange.” Naruto said. He bumped his shoulder against Sakura’s when she didn’t answer._

_She took a few moments to acknowledge him. “Have you ever thought about death, Sora? Really thought about the unbridled unfairness of it?”_

_“N-no… I mean, the ninja business is dangerous, but I’m confident we’ll do well there.”_

_She nodded, seeming to get lost in thoughts again._

_Sora did not like where this was going. “Are you getting sick like your father was?”_

_“No.” She said. “But I think he knew the same things I did. The stone… I figured out the old legends surrounding it. It needs human sacrifice. I think that’s what my dad was trying to do when he attacked me.”_

_“You aren’t seriously thinking about it, are you?”_

_“Of course not.” She said. “Who would ever do a thing like that?”_

~*~

_Naruto was practicing his new move. Manifesting chakra was the hardest part and he had gotten that down ages ago. Just concentrate on his upper back and…_

_“What are you doing out here?” Sasuke asked._

_Naruto quickly dropped the construct and tidied himself up. “Training, what else?”_

_“Just a few more days till we leave for Konoha. My family still doesn’t suspect a thing. I was feeling kind of guilty, but then they gave most of my clothing away to my nephew without asking and told me my new wife would buy whatever I needed.”_

_Naruto smiled. “You’ve been practicing too?”_

_“Of course. There’s not a single lock in the Kobayashi estate that hasn’t been picked. I’ve been taking apart the practice locks and I’m not leaving any marks at all anymore.”_

_“That’s terrific. Have you heard from Kemeko-chan? Do you know if she’s practicing?”_

_“I haven’t seen her.” Sasuke said. “But I hear she’s been acting erratic lately. One of my nieces went home crying a few days ago. She said Kemeko had yelled at her.”_

_Naruto wanted to say that it did not sound like her, but she had been getting worse ever since she confessed the moonstone required a sacrifice. She had approached him several times, talking about the greater good and the moral obligations they had to the village._

_“Maybe she’ll get better if we get her away from Shigandan.” Sasuke said. “There are a lot of bad memories here.”_

_“Yeah.” Naruto picked up a few knives they had borrowed and got ready to throw them at the targets. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. We’ll pack our things together and we’ll soar. It’s the princess we’re talking about. What’s the worst that could happen?”_

~*~

_Sakura held a knife in her hand._

_Naruto shook awake, trying to crawl away from her._

_“I need you to listen to what I’m going to say.”_

_“What the hell are you doing?”_

_Sakura brought the knife to her own throat. “I need you to know how serious I am. You need to hear everything I am going to say. If you walk away, I’ll slit my own throat.”_

_“Kemeko-chan…”_

_“Konoha is coming for this village. And it’s going to be bad. The Watanabe family needs the power to stop them. I need you to jump of the cliff by the mountain shrine.”_

_Naruto tried to move, but Sakura took a firmer handle on her knife. “Why the hell would I do that?”_

_“That’s what I’m here to tell you. There have been reports of the other villages. They take anyone who’s got chakra affinity. They turn them into soldiers. When they come here, they’ll take you and they’ll take Hisoka-kun. They’ll make you become ninja.”_

_“That was the plan anyway. Why should we care? We don’t buy into your propaganda writing. We won’t forget our village when we’ve become jounin.”_

_“You won’t make it that far.” She reached into a pocket and tossed him a scroll. “This was just delivered tonight. Konoha executed a gay ninja for having feelings for the First Hokage.”_

_Naruto looked over the scroll. It was all there. The official stamps, the checks by the information agencies of the village. There was no doubting the authenticity. Hashirama Senju had executed Madara Uchiha in a public square because of indecency. The alliance had survived. If anything, the Uchiha were bending over backwards apologising for their former leader perverted inclinations._

_“They’re ninja. They’ll find out about you two. I could live with letting one of you go. But I can’t go on if both of you are dead. Not when it’s just a matter of time before they start hunting down the rest of us here. I can’t keep my girlfriend a secret forever. I need the power of the moonstone to protect the village. I need it to protect your boyfriend. Please, Sora. Help me.”_

~*~

_Naruto was shivering in the cold, but he was determined. Sakura had convinced him that the moonstone had the power. That his death would save them all. He had been meaning to leave the village, but he was fated to stay there for eternity._

_“You don’t have to do this.”_

_“But I do.”_

_Sasuke stepped closer, but Naruto threatened to step off and that kept the other boy at bay._

_“I wanted to go to Konoha with you. I wanted to be ninja together.” Sasuke was sobbing._

_“You can go without me.” Naruto’s voice was breaking. At least one of them would fulfil Naruto’s dream. And without Naruto there, Sasuke would be safe._

_“I’ll never go anywhere without you.” Sasuke tried to take another step forward, but he was stopped._

_Sakura held onto Sasuke’s arm tightly. “Jump.”_

_Naruto sighed. She was right, of course. The waiting was not helping. He needed to get this over with. He peered over the edge. He imagined it would make a horrible sound when he dropped to the ground. He would try not to scream. It was the least he could do for Sasuke. The rest… he had to hope the sounds of the waterfall would drown it out._

_He wondered what people would think when they found him. The orphan boy who had fought all his life to get away. Would they believe he had finally given up? Would they ever know that he had done to protect them?_

_He hovered one leg over the edge._

_“Don’t...” Sasuke cried._

_Naruto smiled. He looked back at his teammates. “All my life, people have been telling me I’m worthless, you know. That they’d rather see me dead. I guess they’re about to get their wish.”_

_“You can’t do this.”_

_Naruto grinned as wide as he could. “You know me. Always looking for an excuse to soar.”_

_Naruto stepped back and he fell._

_~*~_

_Being dead felt strangely extended. His mind was slower and his emotions subdued. It was like he was more asleep than awake. But he was not gone. As Sakura had promised, he was still there._

_The only thing he recognised was Sasuke, crying against Sakura’s shoulder. Naruto had caused that and he felt bad about it. But there was nothing that he could do now._

_Sakura patted the boy’s shoulder and she was talking. She was explaining things and it sounded inspiring and strong, even if Naruto could not hear the exact words. She had always been a good orator._

_“He’s gone.” Sasuke said._

_“He lives on in the Moonstone.” Sakura said. “I can feel him even now.”_

_Naruto touched Sasuke’s shoulder, but it passed right through. He did not feel any heat and its absence hurt him in a way that was impossible to describe._

_“I can feel so much. Every person capable of chakra in this whole village, lending their powers to me.” Sakura moved to one of the trees and she cut it down with one swipe of a blue hand. She turned around to boast at Sasuke, but Sasuke had gone to the edge. The smile dropped off her face immediately. “What are you doing?”_

_“Joining him.” Sasuke said. “You said it yourself. He lives on in the stone. I’ll keep him company.”_

_“Y-you can’t. I can’t loose both of you.”_

_Naruto reached for him, but there was nothing he could do._

_“Guess we’ll finally have our answer. Am I the crane who soars? Or am I the shark who falls?”_

~*~

Naruto was awake again, but he was still at the cliff’s edge. The rest of his team was tied up together with the devil standing over them. Naruto felt weak, like a large part of him was still asleep. His chakra was being suppressed somehow.

He saw the impression of a young boy next to him, ready to jump off the cliff. A black-haired boy was fading in and out of existence to the side. From what Naruto could tell, he was trying to keep Naruto from jumping. There were more shadows of people all along the cliff.

“You are going to jump off the cliff.” Kimiko said. She stood straight and had an evil smirk sketched onto her face.

“Or you’ll kill my team.” Naruto said. He felt her presence consuming them, dominating their spirits. It was hard to shape chakra. It slipped away as soon as he grasped for it.

“Don’t do it!” Sasuke yelled.

_“Don’t…” Soka whispered._

_“I have to.” He heard Sora say._

“She’ll just kill us anyway after you’ve jumped.” Sakura pleaded. “Don’t do it.”

“I can erase their memories.” Kimiko said. “Nobody else has to die tonight. You just have to jump.”

_“Jump.” A similar voice repeated._

“If you could erase memories, you would have done so already.” Sasuke said.

“As you should have realised by now, you do not know half of what I am capable of.” She turned to Sakura. “I have concentrated benzodiazepines from cider wood, which I combine with nine parts sake.”

Sakura swallowed. “That would do the trick. But why? What do you gain from this?” Sakura asked.

“You lack respect and you have insulted this village. I see no intent on your part to obey the new treaty, even if your village orders you to uphold it. You are not leaving without a punishment. Naruto here has been having strange dreams. He has talked about suicide. If you wake up tomorrow and find he has jumped, you will accept it.”

“How do you know all this?”

She smiled. “The villagers are loyal to me. Anything you’ve said in public has made its way to me. You should have been more careful, shinobi.”

Naruto would be expected to jump off the cliff. He tried pushing chakra into his feet, but it was absorbed as soon as he let it out. The woman was able to take his chakra and cancel it faster than he could produce it. He would not be able to walk down like he had with Sasuke before.

Naruto looked down over the cliff. The moon was not full, but it was almost so. It cast the village in the exact eerie lighting of his dreams. The waterfall sounded nearby. He wondered what his teammates would think, when they found his corpse the next morning. At least now he knew they would miss him.

_“She had been trying to poison me, but I was too careful. Therefore she poisoned Hiro.” Akira said. “She would only administer the antidote if I jumped.”_

_“She knew I was attacking the bandits and colluding with Konoha.” Naoko said. “She brought me here and threatened to hurt Junko if I didn’t jump.” _

There were so many reasons. Each one had their own story. They all had the same conclusion.

_“She lied to me.” Sora said. “She forged documents because she needed a willing sacrifice. And not just me.” The boy looked over the other ghosts. “She lied to all of these people.”_

Naruto gasped. He looked over the woman who had introduced herself as Kimiko, granddaughter to the village’s princess. The woman who had seemed impossibly capable and who had a daughter who did not exist. “You’re Kemeko.”

“That took you longer than I had thought.” She said. “You know, you’re the first person to hear them whisper while you’re awake. It’s impressive. But it won’t do you any good.”

“But they saw pregnancies. They saw the babies being born” Sasuke said. “People saw you grow older.”

“The make-up.” Sakura realised. “The drastically different looks. You take the place of your supposed daughter and over the years you use face paints to make yourself look older and older. When you retire an old persona, you make sure that your ‘daughter’ looks different enough that nobody will notice.”

“But a ninja would notice.” Kakashi said. “Not right away, but with enough exposure it’s inevitable. Your biggest fear is letting ninja into the village and having them figure it out.”

“It’s not so simple.” She said sharply. “There are a lot of reasons to hate ninja. That you’d rob me of my immortality is just one of them.”

Naruto looked all around him. There were so many of her victims. Each one was reliving the final moments before their deaths. It had all been suicides. He could feel the pressure all of them had been under. She had made them jump. None of them had been pushed.

“In a way, they’re all willing sacrifices.” Naruto realised. Why? She had killed over the years. She had demonstrated with Kakashi how easily she could overpower someone. But whenever she could, she made sure they killed themselves. That they chose to sacrifice themselves. “Because they make you stronger.”

“The moonstone requires blood taken and spirit given. My father paid the blood and every few years I renew the contract to keep my youth.”

Naruto swallowed. “The blood… it needs to be of someone related to you.”

Sakura was on the verge of gagging. “Your daughters never grew ill. You killed them.”

“The first time wasn’t planned. I had the most perfect daughter. But then the dreams came and they showed me what would happen. If she lived, she would grow old like I would not. She would become afraid of death and she would turn against me. She would fight me for immortality and she would lose. If she had to die by my hand, I had to do it while she was still young.”

Sakura’s face was cold. “And your next three daughters?”

“It’s the price I have to pay. The stone requires blood and spirit.

“Blood for your youth, but it needs spirit to make you stronger. Energy.” Naruto said. “That’s why you needed Sora. He had more power than anyone in the village. That’s why it has to be me now. You don’t care about setting an example. You want my chakra.”

“It’s the largest reserve I’ve ever seen.” She said. “When you touched me this afternoon, I couldn’t believe what I sensed. Until then there had only been an unexplainable shadow of effervescence hanging over the village. I did not realise you were the origin of it until I met the real you. Until I realised I could not let you leave.”

“She’d be unstoppable.” Kakashi said.

“I’m already unstoppable.” Kemeko spat at him. “I’ve been amassing power for the last sixty years. Every child with chakra affinity becomes an extra source of energy to be drained. The ones who step out of line are added to my collection and add to my power. Naruto is just one bucket for a lake that’s been filled one drop at a time.”

Naruto stared at her. Did she not realise what was inside of him? If she had amassed a lake, he was the ocean. He could feel the Kyuubi’s chakra stirring inside of him. Under the shallow waters of his own chakra, there was a deep and dark well that was always itching to break free. He had only release it. He could fight, even if the fox’s energy was not suited to form any techniques.

“It is time for this to end.” She said. “Naruto, jump. Or I will break Sasuke’s neck.”

Naruto gulped. He shuffled to the cliff’s edge.

“Don’t you dare!” Sasuke yelled.

All along the cliff, he could see the shadows ready to join him. They were crying. They were fighting internally against a choice they did not want to make. All except Sora, who was closest. Sora, who took Naruto’s hand.

They would not have figured anything out if it had not been for the dreams. Kemeko gained nothing from them. Therefore, it was not Kemeko who had been giving them to him. “You wanted me to know.” Naruto whispered.

“I’m not normally this lucid. I just wanted to warn those kids. Show them my story. I didn’t mean to lead her right to them.”

“You found me, even when I was still in Konoha.”

“You were a beacon. I knew you were the only one who could stop this.” Sora squeezed Naruto’s hand and he felt it. He realised what Sora was planning now. It was risky and there was only a small chance it would work.

“Don’t worry, Sasuke.” Naruto said, jumping over the edge. “Just watch me soar.”

~*~

Sasuke saw Naruto disappear. Sakura gasped beside him and started slowly sobbing. Kakashi was muttering to himself. Sasuke stared in disbelieve.

Naruto could not be gone. This was his loud and obnoxious teammate they were talking about. The boy nobody could make go away. No matter how rude or abrasive Sasuke got, Naruto would always come back to him. It had been the one constant of his life.

He waited for the sound of Naruto reaching the ground, but the waterfall roared nearby. They would not hear his final moments. They would only hear Kimiko’s chuckling. No, Kemeko’s chuckling. The devil’s delight at winning.

He tried to imagine going back to Konoha one team member short. Tried to imagine going on missions without Naruto with them. Nothing would ever be the same again. He had been calling Naruto family. He had not realised until now that losing him would hurt so much. His eyes ached from tears that were not coming.

“You won’t really keep us alive, will you?” Kakashi asked.

“Only Sakura.” She said. “I do need somebody to carry the warning to Konoha. And her death’s the least likely to hurt Konoho’s leaders. No offence, dear. Women are often underestimated and underappreciated. I’ll make it quick.”

She took one step towards them, but seemed to hit an invisible wall. The air was turning red.

“Naruto?” Sakura called out hopefully.

“No.” Kakashi said. “It’s Susanoo.”

Sasuke stared at the woman who was responsible for his best friend’s death with dark red eyes. Gone were the tomoe that used to adorn it, replaced with three curved lines. Sasuke knew he was stronger than he had ever been before. Even when he felt his weakest.

The Sharingan was Sasuke’s weapon and now it was a Magekyo. He had heard stories growing up of the Uchiha heroes who had obtained these eyes. They had lost everything they cared about in battle and had used that loss to retaliate against their enemies. Those stories never had a happy ending.

Sasuke’s very chakra formed the barrier between him and the enemy. It started taking more and more shape, slowly starting to resemble a warrior. Even if he was still tied up, even if he could not smash in her face like he wanted to, he finally had a way to attack her. Susanoo struck out with its sword towards Kemeko.

She used her own defence to stop it in its tracks. Her hand was raised and her energy became a thick shield in the air. “Isn’t this a surprise? Fine, you’ll just have to go to sleep again.” She brought her arm forward and a wave of chakra assaulted them.

Sasuke felt his mind slipping, before it all smacked back into focus.

Sakura was panting besides him. “Th-that genjutsu trick won’t work twice against us. Not with me here.”

“How cute. But you’ll run out of chakra before I do.”

Sasuke could see it. Every time the sword lunged at her it was a bit slower. She kept dodging and blocking it with seemingly no effort. He felt the fury within him rising. This was the woman who had killed Naruto. She was not allowed to win this fight.

There was a sudden burst of bright red light.

Sasuke looked with confusion at his own technique, only to realise that it was not Sasanoo this time.

It had come from the cliff. It was illuminating the sky and the whole town in the distance. And then there was Naruto again, climbing up.

No, not climbing. Floating.

He was rising slowly, revealing massive wings of red chakra attached to his back. Its edges spun quickly and made even more noise than the waterfall. It was just like the carpentry technique that Naruto had learned, scaled up to ridiculous extremes. He had the biggest grin on his face. “I’m the fucking crane!”

His wings turned suddenly and all the force he had been using to lift himself up was used to fly forward. He dashed towards Kemeko with his arm stretched out. Great blades of spinning chakra threatened to impale her. She held out an open palm and a wall of chakra protected her. Naruto bounced off it and crashed in a different direction. Instead of turning, Naruto dove to the ground and dug his claws into the earth to slow to a stop.

Kemeko cursed, before grabbing some of the kunai around her to throw them at Naruto. It was clear she had never practiced the art.

Naruto could see exactly where they were going and it was easy to dodge them. For the last one, he stretched out his own palm and blocked it with an invisible wall of circling chakra.

“We never wanted this, Kemeko-chan.” Naruto said. “This village was supposed to be a haven. We were supposed to welcome people with open arms. Not hire the very bandits that keep people away from us.” Naruto formed tails around his body that lashed out against the woman.

“Sora?” Kemeko’s voice cracked. She was almost too late to block the tails, but controlling her chakra was second nature to her. She cocooned herself much like Sasuke had done. “Don’t you think I tried?!”

“You should have tried harder! So many people suffered.” Naruto walked forward, looking deceptively relaxed as the fox tails crashed against her barrier with enough force to level mountains.

“Nobody would listen to me!” She yelled. “You have no idea what it’s like to work within a system that tries to tear you down.”

“I grew up here too. I was willing to fight. Why did you lie to me? I could have helped you. We could have made it together.”

“I just exaggerated. There were enough rumours that I knew you would be unsafe. I fabricated the evidence to show you truth. I told you the truth. I wanted both of you, but I needed Hisoka especially. I needed him to have the Kobayashi family behind me.”

“That was one of your mistakes.” Naruto said. His tone was different. His facial expression too. “Thinking I’d be able to live without Sora.”

“I didn’t expect you to jump after him, Soka.” She said. “I never wanted that.”

“You never understood.” Naruto said. “That’s why we’ll make you understand.”

“There’s nothing you can do.” She smiled wistfully. “Each of us has a perfect defence. I thought I had more chakra and could outlast you, but I’ll admit my unearned arrogance. I see the tails, after all.”

Naruto smirked, he looked at his team. “Oi, Kakashi-sempai. Thanks for coming here.”

“Akira?”

“You know, I had the biggest crush on you when we were kids. Never had the courage to say it, even after that fooling around we did, but seeing as I’m getting a chance to say some last words. The code to my reports is a Beaufort cipher using Konoha Tabula Recta number 5, with the keyphrase ‘The sake is poisoned’.”

“I missed you, just so you know.” Kakashi said. “And I never forgot you. Now what are we going to do about Kemeko here?”

“We’re going to have a big fight, but I’m not sure which one of us is going to win. It makes me a little sad. I’m not particularly eager for either outcome.”

Kemeko tightened her position. “Does that mean you’ll go easy on me?”

He shook his head “I can’t. I know your body count. I know of the political enemies you destroyed. The illness was your favourite excuse. Nobody suspected you were poisoning them. Nobody thought to examine the foods Shigandan’s princess gifted them. They were too happy to be in your good favour.”

“They threatened our way of life. They wanted to reach out to Konoha! I had to do it.”

“There are many things you had to do. You had to manipulate the children who got suspicious. You had to poison those who got the dreams. And when there were too many suicides to escape notice, you had to stigmatise mental disease. You had to help families cover up their shame. But the lack of acceptance only made the problem worse.”

“I had no choice.”

“You had many choices.” Naruto said

“I’ve had enough of this.” She said. The air felt tighter as she drew her chakra to herself. She did not have the control of a ninja, but she had enough force that she was lethal and dangerous.

“How are you going to fight her?” Kakashi asked.

Naruto moved to answer, before he rubbed his head. He grinned as the tails retreated and his attacks halted. “I thought we learned the lesson together when we were kids, Hime, but it seems you forgot and never relearned it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We never managed to produce a show on our own. We had to work together. There’s strength in being together. There’s weakness in being alone.”

“I’ve managed perfectly well.” She said. “I’ve found actors who are better than you and carpenters who make better backgrounds. I’m the only one who wasn’t replaceable.”

“Tell me, Hime, if you had someone you could trust, where would they be right now?”

“I don’t need anyone at my side to beat you.”

Naruto shook his head. “Don’t you think it took me a long time to come back? Making the wings did not take that long.”

She shook her head, but realisation was slowly dawning. “No…”

A huge explosion sounded in the distance. They could see the fire and smoke all the way from the cliff overlooking the village. It had come from the theatre. It had come from the Watanabe home next to it.

“You forgot that, above all else, my specialty is making clones.”

“No…”

“We’re all tired, Kemeko-chan. We want to rest. You can’t keep us here any longer.”

“I’ll stop you.”

Naruto laughed. “It’s already too late. I’m sure you can feel it too.”

Kemeko shook her head frantically. “You killed them, Naruto. Their spirits were still alive and you murdered them.”

“Their spirits were trapped and weary. They begged me and I put them out of their misery.”

She coughed and collapsed to her knees. “I’m not ready. I have so many more plays to write. So much more to show the world.”

“We’ll make sure your plays are performed.” Naruto said. He knelt down in front of her. “But it’s time for you to rest.”

Hey eyes teared and then she started sobbing, crying into Naruto’s shoulder. “It’s not fair. I sacrificed so much. I wanted to give back to the world. My plays aren’t perfect yet. I still need time.”

Naruto pet her hair and held her. “It’s time to let go. Aren’t you tired of all the sacrifice?”

She nodded weakly.

“Sleep now. It’ll be better when you wake up.”

Slowly, Kemeko’s sobs grew more silent. When he could not hear her at all anymore, he laid her down on the ground. Her hair had whitened and her skin had grown wrinkled. He took a kunai and undid the ropes tying his teammates together.

Kakashi ruffled his hair with his unbroken hand. “You did good.”

Sakura hugged him. “I was so scared we had lost you.” Then she punched his arm.

“Not so easy to get rid of.”

Sasuke just stared at Naruto for a few long seconds. His upgraded Sharingan reverted back to its regular shape, before turning back into black. He wobbled on his feet, clearly exhausted and doing his best just to stay awake. “You made me think you were dead.”

“I thought I would be. I couldn’t have done it on my own. But the fox helped. And Sora too.”

Sasuke stepped closer. It looked like he was about to punch Naruto. He settled on kissing him instead. Naruto felt Sasuke’s hand gripping his hair, pushing Naruto closer. His skin was warm in the evening breeze. Naruto felt himself getting warmed up by his teammate’s passion. Sasuke was like fire, after all.

Kakashi and Sakura were probably reacting to this, but Naruto had no idea how. Sasuke took up all his attention.

~*~

Naruto was resting his head on Sasuke’s shoulder while Sakura finished up. Retesting the whole village had been tough, but rewarding as well.

“Hey, Uddo!” Naruto greeted. He tried to get up, but Sasuke was clutching his arm. That was fine. “Glad you came back.”

“I can’t believe it. Half my family’s tested positive. I’m going to need you to promise you won’t share those carpentry techniques I showed you with anyone else. We’re going to need them a lot sooner than I thought.”

“We’ll keep quiet.” Naruto promised. “You’re here to get tested too?”

“Yeah.” He offered up his arm to Sakura, much like before.

When she jolted his system, water sprayed from his fingers. Sakura was quick enough to step back. “Like we said last time, your chakra reserves are huge. You’ll make a great ninja.”

His face lit up with a smile. “I’m so happy I get to join my friends. Even when I’m sad I’ll be leaving Shigandan.”

“Don’t be.” Sakura chuckled. “We got word a few hours ago. There are so many ninja recruits that they’re creating a local ninja Academy. You won’t have to go anywhere.”

“That’s amazing!” He could not help himself and hugged Sakura tight. “Ever since the Moonstone got destroyed, I have so much more energy. I haven’t felt so healthy in years.”

“Put it to good use.”

“Yeah.” Naruto said. “After everything your village has been through, you deserve a break. At least most of the bandits have surrendered, now that they’re not getting any more financial support.”

“All those years Kemeko took from us.” Uddo said. “And we never suspected a thing.”

Sakura patted his shoulder. “She was good at fooling people.”

“Again, thanks for everything. I’ve got to tell my family. They’ll be so excited.” Uddo waved goodbye.

Sakura stretched a bit. She had been sitting in the same spot for most of the day. Sasuke had offered to help a few times. Every time Sakura had given him a simple look and reminded him that when she ordered bed rest, she actually meant it. Using the upgraded Sharingan had exhausted his chakra reserves and he needed time to recover. Loathe as he was to admit it.

“I should check on Kakashi.” Sakura said.

“How’re his injuries?”

“Better. Now if he would just stop decoding Akira’s reports, maybe his hand would have a chance to fully recover.”

“He just wants to finish before we leave so he can share everything with Hiro.”

“You’d think the mission money would be good enough.”

Naruto shrugged. “Kakashi just wants to help. At least he’s not hounding Mai anymore.”

Sakura shuddered. “I do hope they don’t sentence her too leniently. Kakashi would make it his personal mission to add his own punishment. He really wants to get revenge for Akira. Can you close up for me?”

“Sure. Least we can do.”

She picked up her bag and then left the room. There were only a few things to tidy.

It really was the end. Another team was relieving them and they would leave Shigandan behind to go back to Konoha. Sora had died before he had been able to. So had Naoko and Akira and a lot of other people who Kemeko had killed. But she was gone now and there was nothing standing in their way.

Naruto nudged Sasuke. “You okay? Been kinda quiet.”

“Just thinking about tomorrow. About going back to Konoha.”

“Yeah. It’s going to be weird not waking up next to you.” Naruto said. It had been on his mind a lot lately.

“Then move in with me.” Sasuke said.

Naruto rolled his eyes. “What would people say?”

“When has either of us ever cared about that? I’m serious. My apartment’s big enough.”

“I don’t want to become a bother. What if I wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares?”

“I’ll sleep a lot more soundly if you’re next to me. Of course, if you really don’t want to…”

“That’s not the problem, teme.” Naruto said. “My only experience living with people is the orphanage. And they couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”

“I won’t want to get rid of you.”

“I just don’t know how it works. You know I live in a cluttered home. I hate cleaning and doing chores.”

“I’ll teach you what you need to know. I don’t need a maid. I need you, Naruto.”

“But why me?” Naruto said, all his insecurities at the front of his mind. He was an orphan. Nobody liked him. He failed at the most basic things. He could not read properly, he was too immature, he had trouble talking about his anxieties and he insulted people without realising it. He had so many flaws.

“Because you’re perfect just the way you are. And I love you.”

“I love you too, teme. Are you really sure?”

“Yes. And I’ll say it as many times as I have to do.”

“Then okay.” Naruto said. He smiled and held his boyfriend a little tighter in his arms. “We’ll soar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading. It's been tough keeping up with my weekly updating schedule, and the perfectionist in me would have wanted to work on every part of this a lot more, but it's also been a good motivator to have these deadlines. Thanks as well for the feedback and all your support, whether it's been hits, kudos, bookmarks or comments.
> 
> The basis for this entire story was the final confrontation and Naruto growing wings of chakra to soar after the many dreams where he/Sora claimed he would do just that. It wasn't until I had started the project that I realised it contained four different plots that had to be woven together. Present day Naruto (1), investigating Akira's investigation (2), into Naoko's Death (3) with Sora/Soka/Kemeko (4) as the background catalyst for everything. It's been a fun challenge and I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment letting me know what you think : )  
For those interested, my tumblr is @WriterBen01, where I reblog something about once a week (usually Naruto fanart).


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